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Well, never too old to learn. EYB has 123 online recipes for "King's Cake".. something I'd never heard of till I googled the meaning of "Epiphany".. that's traditionally been when my family have taken down the Christmas decorations.. but I now know that it celebrates the arrival of the Magi on 12th Night (6th Jan)..and that you good folks of Southern America celebrate with cake...I might just have foound a new tradition to add to our family's festive celebrations!

I thought King's cake was made for Mardi Gras.  Is this a different type?  Curious.

Seems they start with cake on Epiphany all the way through to Mardi Gras with King's Cake .. or at least according to the font of all culinary knowledge: wiki ;-)

"The season for king cake extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelfth Night and Epiphany Day), up until the end of Shrovetide: Mardi Gras, "Fat Tuesday," or Shrove Tuesday; the day before the start of Lent."

I also saw that in France they sell gallettes des rois, pastry encasing almond paste at this time of year.  Another king cake!

There is  king's bread and it is what most Hawaiians and some in western US think about when king's is mentioned.  King's Hawaiian rolls and bread from Hilo Hawaii. Most likely of Portuguese influenced sweeter soft rolls and bread. 

Here in Switzerland all the bakeries have both the couronnes des rois (sultana bread rolls baked in a circle to resemble a crown) and the galettes des rois (puff pastry with frangipane filling) on sale at the moment.  I'm going to be making David Lebovitz's galette de rois recipe on Monday with gluten-free puff pastry:  https://www.eatyourbooks.../1216649/galette-de-rois

FJT - do you make your own GF puff pastry or buy it frozen? I bought frozen for making sausage rolls for my GF daughter at Christmas and I was very disappointed in it. It did not have the flakiness I associate with puff pastry - it was more of a shortcrust vibe. I'd be happy to make my own if I can get closer to that flakiness.

Jane, I buy frozen, ready-rolled puff pastry. It is surprisingly good considering it doesn't have any butter in it (many GF products are also dairy-free because a lot of coeliacs also have lactose intolerance), but my husband eats it quite happily and he's usually very critical of GF food.  I have had some awful ready-made puff pastry though and have made it myself in the past.

I know you are in Switzerland FJT but what brand is it you use?

It's Leisi which is a Nestlé brand that I've only seen in Swizerland.  They definitely don't make any GF puff pastry in the US as I remember that there were very few GF products in their range over there that I could eat.  Full disclosure: my husband works for them, so I have an interest in finding out what they make that I can eat wherever they move us!  I had a hard time finding GF puff pastry when we lived in St. Louis, so I tried making my own with mixed results.

French king cake for Epiphany (Galette des rois) from Bake at 350 by Bridget Edwards looks good, has anyone tried it?

Shelmar, since the Bake at 350 blog is indexed on EYB, I took the liberty of adding a link to the indexed recipe to your original post, so other members can check it out. If anyone bakes it, please post a Note!

Right now emerils.com have a recipe for King Cake to begin the first day of mardi gras season on their top page.