King Cake

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone!

My house smells divine. Two king cakes were baked last night.

Dough is mixing!

What? You've never had a Mardi Gras king cake you say? Well, let me school you. According to Wikipedia:

A king cake (sometimes rendered as kingcake, kings' cake, king's cake, or three kings cake) is a type of cake associated in a number of countries with the festival of Epiphany at the end of the Christmas season, and in other places with the pre-Lenten celebrations of Mardi Gras / Carnival.
The cake often has a small plastic baby (said to represent Baby Jesus) inside (or sometimes placed underneath), and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations.

Every country that celebrates with king cake seems to have their own take on it. Read here for more details. The kind I make for my friends and family is of the Louisiana variety (they actually do make more than one kind in that region). It's a colorful purple-gold-green praline-filled bread confection with a little plastic baby Jesus hidden inside (I stick mine right inside, not under the slice). If you are from New Orleans, I think the person who gets the piece with the baby inside hosts the next party during the Mardi Gras season (they party for way more than a day down there). We don't adhere to that tradition 'round these parts...we just get excited to have a baby Jesus in our slice.

I have to admit, I use a box mix for my King Cakes. It is so bulletproof. I think next year I might experiment from scratch. I go back and forth on the idea. 'Cause if it ain't broke don't fix it. Right?

King cakes are delicious! (even from a box)

A slice of king cake starts this day of overindulging off just right. Later tonight my family will be having jambalaya and red beans and rice...maybe some hurricanes for the big folks? Mmmmmm.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

–Cassandra


PS: Check out Alex's wonderful post on Mardi Gras in New Orleans from last year.