Frangipane
Frangipane ( ), is a sweet almond-flavored custard, typical in French pastry, used in a variety of ways, including cakes and such pastries as the Bakewell tart, conversation tart, Jésuite and pithivier. A French spelling from a 1674 cookbook is franchipane, with the earliest modern spelling coming from a 1732 confectioners' dictionary. Originally designated as a custard tart flavored by almonds or pistachios, it came later to designate a filling that could be used in a variety of confections and baked goods. It is traditionally made by combining two parts of almond cream (crème d’amande) with one part pastry cream (crème pâtissière). Almond cream is made from butter, sugar, eggs, almond meal, bread flour, and rum; and pastry cream is made from whole milk, vanilla bean, cornstarch, sugar, egg yolks or whole eggs, and butter. There are many variations on both of these creams as well as on the proportion of almond cream to pastry cream in frangipane. On Epiphany, the French cut the king cake, a round cake made of frangipane layers into slices to be distributed by a child known as le petit roi (the little king), who is usually hiding under the dining table. The cake is