September 05

Louis XIV's Birthday
 
 

Many French kings adopted symbols of their authority. Francis I chose a salamander, Louis II chose a porcupine, and Henri II chose the crescent moon From the moment of Louis XIV's birth, he was identified with the sun.

Poems written and medals were struck hailing the new-born heir to the throne as the sun at dawn. The sun was both the symbol and the metaphor of Louis' reign during which France reached its pinnacle. Louis eventually officially adapted the title Le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), and the sun became a constantly recurring symbol of his reign.

One of Louis' great passions was dancing. When he was thirteen, a grand ball was held to celebrate the end of the Fronde, the series of civil wars that occurred during his childhood. At the ball Louis danced his first public ballet, a dance which he performed on several later occasions, costumed as the rising sun.

Louis XIV from Archivo Fotografico Oronoz

Louis created Versailles and lured the nobles there  with gambling, exquisite food, and beautiful women, eventually dissipating their energies until they were dependent on Louis lifestyle as their own. The king eventually controlled every aspect of French life, from the successful wars and territorial acquisitions, the resolving of theological disputes, and the remolding of France as the world's greatest the center of European politics, art, architecture, music, dance, theatre, and gastronomy.  His numerous wars and extravagant palaces and châteaux effectively bankrupted the state forcing him to levy higher taxes on the peasants and incurring large state debts.

Louis may have been most popular monarch to have been been portrayed in film and TV with more than 40 films/TV shows in which he is a principal character. This is due in part to the popularity of the The Man in the Iron Mask which has been made several time  (one of the latest versions in 1998 starring Leonardo DiCaprio) that centered around Louis's fictional twin brother Philippe. Two of the best portrayals of the Sun King were both in 2000  - Julian Sands in Vatel, Benoît Magimel in Le Roi danse, and Jean-Pierre Kalfon in Saint-Cyre. Some less conventional portrayals of Louis XIV have been by Michael Palin in Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Golden Age of Ballooning (1974) and Emmanuel Moire in Le Roi Soleil, a highly successful French musical by Kamel Ouali Moire that ran at the Palais des Sports in Paris from September 22, 2005 to July 8, 2007.
 		  
The creation of Versailles made France the culinary center of the world. The kitchens of Versailles were under the direction of one of the world's greatest chefs, Francois La Varenne, who created a form of cooking recently rediscovered and named nouvelle cuisine. Varenne radically changed the style of French cooking by eliminating heavy spices and creating natural meat sauces. He introduced the glace de viandes, which are a staple of this book, duxelles (chopped mixture of mushrooms, onions, shallots and herbs sautéed in wine) pâtés, .and other French classics.

One of the many culinary specialties that Varenne created for Louis XIV was the petit four (tiny ovens), so named because when the miniature cakes were first presented to Louis, his comment was that Varenne must have had tiny ovens constructed to make such little cakes. Petit fours became Louis" favorite dessert and whatever the king liked, the court liked, thereby making the petit four one of the most famous French cakes in history.
 		  

Petit Fours
 
 

Cake Ingredients
 
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups cake flour
 		 1/2 cup clarified butter at room temperature
1 tsp. almond flavoring
butter for baking pan
 
Filing Ingredients
 
Raspberry jam
 
Glaze and Frosting Ingredients
 
1 cup sieved apricot jam
4 TB cognac
1/2 cup simple syrup*
1&1/2 cup confectioners sugar

* See Appendix A		 1 tsp. egg white
1 tsp. clarified butter at room temperature
2 TB cognac
food coloring (optional)
 

Instructions
 
  1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
  2. Mix eggs and sugar in a bowl that will fit over a medium saucepan. Place bowl in saucepan with about 2" of water. Water should be at least 1" from bottom of bowl.
  3. Warm water over low heat for about 7 minutes or until egg/sugar mixture is warm. Do not let water boil. Stir egg/sugar mixture about every two minutes while warming.
  4. Remove bowl fran saucepan and heat egg/sugar mixture with an electric mixer at high speed about 10 minutes or until mixture looks like and has the consistency of whipped cream.
  5. Sprinkle flour, about 1/8 cup at a time, over egg/sugar mixture. Fold in gently until all flour is used up. Add butter and cognac in small quantities over each addition of flour before folding,
  6. Pour batter in buttered 11"x16" jelly roll pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until cake is light brown and separates fran sides of pan.
  7. Remove cake from oven and turn over on cake rack immediately to cool. Cover with towel and set aside one day to slightly dry out.
  8. Cut the cake in half to form two 8"x11" layers. Spread one layer with raspberry jam. Place second layer over first layer.
  9. Heat sieved apricot jam in a small saucepan until it canes to a roil. Stir in cognac.
    While glaze is still hot, glaze top of second layer.
  10. Cut of browned edges with a serrated knife. With a ruler cut cake in 1" strips. Use ruler crosswise to cut strips into 1" squares.
  11. Mix syrup and confectioners sugar in a saucepan to form a paste. Heat over low heat until mixture is lukewarm, stirring constantly. Beat in egg white, butter and cognac. Add food coloring if desired.
  12. Frost petit fours on tops and sides.