Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – BABA Jacquet bakery in Ghent teams up with Christofelli jeweller Christophe Van den Necker to hide a €500 lab-grown diamond in king’s cakes from January 3–6, 2026, limited to 400 cakes.
As VRT News reported, BABA Jacquet, a popular bakery in Ghent, is offering a special surprise for customers this Epiphany. Traditionally, king’s cakes hide a small object, like a bean or a ceramic figure, to bring luck.
This year, owner Meryem Jacquet joined forces with Christophe Van den Necker of jewellery store Christofelli to hide a real diamond in one of the cakes. Officials mentioned that anyone who orders a cake during the Epiphany season could be lucky enough to find it. The diamond is placed in a box designed to resist the heat of the oven.
“There’s a special, heat-resistant box inside the cake, designed by the jeweller himself in the shape of a diamond,”
explains Meryem Jacquet.
“We both practice a craft. It’s wonderful to celebrate that craftsmanship.”
Meryem Jacquet, bakery BABA Jacquet
What is hidden in BABA Jacquet’s King’s cakes this Epiphany?
The diamond is lab-grown. Unlike natural diamonds, it is made in a laboratory. It has the same shine and quality as a mined diamond. The stone is €500.
“It’s an ecological alternative with the same strength and brilliance as a natural diamond,”
says Jacquet.
The bakery says the campaign is more than a promotion.
“We both practice a craft. The jeweller forges his jewellery by hand, and we make our own bread and pastries from start to finish. It’s wonderful to celebrate that craftsmanship at the start of the new year.”
Anyone who buys a King’s Day cake at the bakery or orders one online from January 3, 2026, to 6, 2026, can win the diamond. The bakery does not know which cake contains it. Owner Meryem Jacquet says,
“Whoever finds the diamond can come to my bakery in Ghent to receive a certificate.”
The certificate lists all the diamond’s details. The winner can keep the diamond or have it made into a piece of jewellery at Christofelli. The promotion will continue until 400 cakes are sold.
Belgium has a long history of concealing items of value within the King Cake. In 2020, a bakery in Brussels’ Saint-Gilles district, named Boulangerie De Weerdt, began inserting 18-carat gold coins valued at 500 euros into some of their galette des rois on the day of Epiphany (January 6, 2026). The insertion of the coins was purely random as there were thousands of cakes sold. Each year after this, Boulangerie has continued this tradition.
