Happy Mardi Gras!

    

     It's that time of year again in Louisiana.  Time to go to parades and best of all, eat king cake!
There are so many variations and fillings in our king cakes, but today I decided to make a plain one.  The recipe is pretty easy, it just takes time to let the dough rise for a few hours.  The end result is Delicious!

King Cake Ingredients:

·         1 envelope active dry yeast

·         1/4 cup warm water, about 105 to 115 degrees

·         2 tablespoons milk, scalded and cooled

·         4 to 5 cups flour

·         8 ounces butter , softened

·         3/4 cup sugar

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         4 eggs

·         4 teaspoons melted butter

             cinnamon sugar mixture- 1/2   cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon

·         icing, colored with food coloring pastes: green, purple, and yellow

              Make with approx. 4 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp. vanilla

 

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk and about 1/2 cup of flour. In a large bowl, blend butter, sugar, salt and eggs. Add yeast mixture and mix thoroughly. Gradually, add 4 cups flour to make a medium dough. Place in a greased bowl and toss dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise until double in volume, about 3 hours.

 

Use 1 cup or more flour to knead dough and roll into a narrow, long rectangle. Spread 4 teaspoons melted butter on dough.  Sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture on top.  Roll dough like jellyroll.   

 

 

 

Form into an oval on a 14 x 17" greased baking sheet.

 

 

 

Cover dough ring with a damp cloth and let rise until double in volume, about 1 hour. Bake at 350° for about  30-45 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool.   Drizzle colored icing over top of cake.

I add the baby after it is cooled.  Hide it when no one is looking!  The tradition is that whoever finds the baby has to buy the next king cake for all to share. 

My family and I also went to a Mardi Gras Parade in Lafayette this past weekend.  We like the Lafayette parades because they have such a family atmosphere to them.  The best thing is, we usually come home with quite a few beads too!