SecretGarden's Mardi Gras King Cake!

Bake a King Cake for a Mardi Gras party,
or just bring a taste of Mardi Gras into your home!

A bit of history on the King Cake ...

Making and sharing King Cakes is a popular custom that is celebrated during Epiphany all over the world. Epiphany marks the coming of the wise men who brought gifts to the Christ Child. It is celebrated twelve nights after Christmas, and the King Cake represents the three kings. A little plastic baby is baked inside the cake, and whoever gets the baby in their piece of cake has to bake the next King Cake, or have the next party. ( My mom always told us it was good luck ... I like that.) The cake itself is a cinnamon-filled dough, shaped into an oval or circle. It is coverd with a glaze and sprinkled with colored sugars ... always purple, green, and gold. The three colors of Mardi Gras, and what they represent ...

Purple is for Justice, Green is for Faith, and Gold is for Power.

King Cake Recipe

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 pkgs. Fleishmann's Rapid Rise Yeast
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 large eggs
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tiny plastic baby *
*Obviously, never give a young child a piece, unless you are
absolutely certain the plastic baby isn't in it!
In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, l/4 cup sugar, salt and undissolved yeast. Heat milk, water and butter until very warm. Add to dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes with electric mixer at medium speed. Add eggs and 1/2 cup flour. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Stir in remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate 2 to 24 hours.
Punch dough down. Remove dough to lightly floured surface. Divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll each into a 28- by 4-inch rectangle. Brush melted butter over each rectangle; sprinkle evenly with remaining 3/4 cup sugar and ground cinnamon. Beginning at long end, roll each up tightly as for a jelly-roll, pinch seams to seal to form ropes. (This is a good time to tuck that little baby doll in there.) Braid ropes; form braid into an oval. Pinch ends together to seal. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 4 hours.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25-to-30 minutes or until golden. Remove from baking sheet; let cool on wire rack. Brush liberally with glaze*. Sprinkle with colored sugars before the glaze hardens. Sprinkle them in solid, wide stipes, alternating colors all the way around the cake.
*Powdered sugar glaze:
In medium bowl, combine 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, 2-to-3 tablespoons milk or light cream, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and 3 drops almond extract. Stir until smooth.
To make it really festive, put a handful of Mardi Gras beads and doubloons in the hole in the center. ( Mardi Gras Gaudy! )
King Cakes today are also baked with a wide assortment of fillings inside, such as apple, lemon, or strawberry.

Enjoy!

Delicious King Cakes can also be purchased. In Louisiana, they are sold just about everywhere, from the first of January through the end of Mardi Gras. They are the snack of choice in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras season. Some bakeries there ship them all over the country.

Order a fresh King Cake online from some of Louisiana's finest:
Gambino's Bakery of New Orleans
Randazzo's Camellia City Bakery
More about the King Cake, and another recipe:
The Louisiana Almanac - New Orleans King Cake
Be sure to visit and pass a good time:
Official Website of Mardi Gras 2007
~ Throw me somethin', Mister! ~

And never forget ...

( Let the good times roll! )

Back to: Louisiana

Binta's site has vanished!

King Cake poster and Mardi Gras beads from Miss Pita's Domain

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