Slice of Life: King Cake and Good Company

Happy Lundi Gras!

I'm a little late getting this post off. We just came through a 24 hour stomach flu that struck 3 out 4 {Paige was quarantined to my parents house at the onset on Sunday morning} in our house this weekend. We are almost all 100% recovered and have sufficiently sanitized the entire house by now.

I've had this beautiful coffee table Lilly Pulitzer Cookbook for some time. I call it a coffee table book, because thus far the recipes I have tried have left much to desire. Perhaps I will try a few others, but I'm losing hope.

It had a gorgeous section on Mardi Gras.

The King Cake recipe beckoned my name.

"King Cake?" You may be asking yourself right now.

Wikipedia {By the way, what did we ever do without this great resource? Oh yeah, we looked in our multi-volume Encyclopedia Brittanica - something my kids will never even know existed} defines King Cake:

A type of cake associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season in a number of countries, and in other places with the pre-Lenten celebrations of Mardi Gras / Carnival. The cake has a small trinket (often a small plastic baby, sometimes said to represent Baby Jesus) inside, and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations (such as buying the cake for the next celebration). The "king cake" takes its name from the biblical three kings. Catholic tradition states that their journey to Bethlehem took twelve days (theTwelve Days of Christmas), and that they arrived to honor the Christ Child on Epiphany. The season for king cake extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelfth Night and Epiphany Day), through to Mardi Gras day.

In the southern United States, the tradition was brought to the area by colonists from France and Spain and it is associated with Carnival (also known as Mardi Gras), which is celebrated in the Gulf Coast region, centered on New Orleans, but ranging from the Florida Panhandle to East Texas. King cake parties in New Orleans are documented back to the eighteenth century.

The king cake of the New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition comes in a number of styles. The most simple, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green, and gold (the traditional Mardi Gras colors) with food coloring. Cajun king cakes are traditionally deep-fat-fried as a doughnut would be, and there are many variants, some with a filling, the most common being cream cheese and praline.

It has become customary in the New Orleans culture that whoever finds the trinket must provide the next king cake or host the next Mardi Gras party.

I had my first King Cake in Louisiana from Gambino's. It was a new found delicacy! Then I had my second King Cake from Randazzo's. It is now my all-time favorite King Cake. Ask anyone from New Orleans {or Southern Lousiana} and they'll probably name their favorite King Cake bakery. Then you'll have all kind of differing opinions and you'll probably cause a street brawl because people are pretty serious about their favorite King Cake down in those parts.
So in my effort to recreate the gloriousness that is King Cake...I turned to Lilly. I mean who wouldn't turn to a clothing designer for good food
{read sarcasm}
?

I started with sugar, pure vanilla, freshly grated nutmeg, butter, hot milk and orange zest.

Dissolved the yeast and added one farm fresh egg to the bowl.

The eggs were given to me by Jack's preschool director, Ms. Sonnie. We so appreciate them! Although, Jack thinks there are little baby chicks inside that we will hatch, so he gets quite upset at me when I tell him I'm going to cook with them. He's also confused and can't figure out why they are already colored Easter eggs.

I added one cup of flour to the ingredients in the Kitchen Aid stand mixer {which I understand is a big help when making dough} and beat on low with the paddle attachment.

Then I switched to the dough hook and added more flour.

Then I ended with this.

I put the dough ball in a buttered bowl in the oven to do the first rise for about an hour.

I used my finest vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon from Penzey's {thanks again, Aunt Unell}.

In a food processor I added brown sugar, cinnamon, sugar and pecans.

Gave them a spin around the block until they were crushed to a fine pulp.

Then I rolled out the dough and {using my farm fresh eggs again} I brushed with an egg wash and added my filling from above.

I rolled it up and made a ring. Covered with plastic wrap and put in the oven for a second rise for about 30 minutes.

It doubled and looked like this. Then it was ready to go in the oven to bake at 325 for about 25 minutes.

This was right about the time that Ben wandered in the kitchen to see what I was up to and asked me if I had made a King Cake with cream cheese filling in it. To which I responded sarcastically, "Um no, but perhaps I'll try that one next year".

My kitchen sink looked something like this - the only reason that I hate cooking and baking.

While we waited for the cake to bake, Paige snuck up on my step ladder. She's always lookin' for some kind of trouble.

But she's too darn cute to be mad at. She just has to look at me like this...and I melt!

But right after that she did get her knee stuck between the bottom and top step which ended in a horrible indention in her knee, a scrape, a bruise, lots of tears and the Boo Boo Bunny to the rescue.

When the cake came out, it cooled for a few hours. Then it was time for the confectioner's sugar icing and Mardi Gras colored {purple, green and gold} sprinkles.

Hallelujah! It's time to hide the Baby Jesus.

Just kidding. I didn't have a plastic Baby Jesus {and didn't know where to find one}, so I just decorated with Mardi Gras beads, which I have a-gracious-plenty. Unfortunately, the Lilly King Cake didn't meet my {somewhat high} expectations of a good King Cake. So, I recommend if you are going to try one, try this. They seem to have high ratings and I usually live steadfastly by the statement – if a recipe came from Southern Living, you can't go wrong. They also have the cream-cheese filled King Cake recipe that I will try for Ben next year. Or maybe I'll just order one from Randazzo's and call it a day!

We brought our King Cake over to our friend's house {Chris and Ali} for dinner and some good company. We all got together because our friends, Linley and David moved to North Carolina about 8 months or so ago and had just come back in town for a visit. It was a raucous good time {with 10 total kids}.