No, I won't lift my shirt for some cheap plastic beads (they actually did an in-depth STUDY on temporary intrinsic values of worthless objects ie: mardi gras beads, and why people risk life, limb and dignity to get them during mardi gras!) but I did make a King Cake. I love to cook and I'm one of those cooks that likes to mess up every single bowl, spoon, gadget and pan in the kitchen. It's more fun that way and besides, that's what a dishwasher is for. It came out *burp* wonderfully. Here's the *belllch* recipe that I used from Allrecipes.com with my alterations *urp*.
Mine is actually a tad TOO rich, if that can be true *BRAAAAACK!!!!* (oops, sorry about that)...
Mardi Gras King Cake --Intermediate to advanced cooks
Ingredients
- PASTRY:
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- 2/3 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- FILLING:
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups chopped and toasted pecans
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1 package cream cheese (ooooh yeaaaaaahhhhh!)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- FROSTING:
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon + however much to make a glaze
- COLORED SUGARS
- 1/4 cup white sugar for each color
- red, yellow, blue and green liquid food coloring
- 3 sandwich size zip-lock bags
Directions
- Scald milk, remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup of butter. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water with 1 tablespoon of the white sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
- When yeast mixture is bubbling, add the cooled milk mixture. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the remaining white sugar, and salt. Beat the flour into the milk/egg mixture 1 cup at a time. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. When risen, punch down and divide dough in half.
- Preheat oven to 355 degrees F. Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
- To Make Filling: Combine the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, cream cheese, chopped pecans, 1/2 cup flour, butter and vanilla. Mix well
- Roll dough halves out into large rectangles (approximately 10x16 inches or so). Liberally spoon the filling over the dough and roll up each half tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at the wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form 2 oval shaped rings. Place each ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1 inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
- Bake in preheated oven for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown. Frost while warm with the confectioners' sugar blended with vanilla extract and 1 to 2 tablespoons of water.
The King Cake just before the oven...
Colored Sugars (couldn't find any purple sugar so I made my own, looks better in person)
The cut King Cake, a precursor to my aching stomach.
You're really supposed to hide the baby in the cake but in today's litigious climate, someone could choke on it and sue you. Traditionally, if you find the baby doll in your piece of cake, you're responsible for bringing the king cake for next year (don't ask me why and I'm too lazy to Google it myself).
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