Mardi Gras is tomorrow!
I get a kick out of learning about other cultures through holidays and food. When I worked at a public library, I used to thumb through the big reference book Folklore of World Holidays to come up with an excuse (and a theme) for treats to share with staff in the break room. Now that Eli is old enough to be my "partner in crime" for such shenanigans, I've had fun tracking down picture books that explain holidays and recipes to go with them. Last month I found Timothy Hubble and the King Cake Party by Anita C. Pireto and Mimi's First Mardi Gras by Alice Couvillon and Elizabeth Moore. Dull and chilly February is a great time to host a king cake party!
I was tempted to do a real party and enjoy having lots of buddies over, but I was a little daunted by the recipe for king cake. It has quite a few steps and if you over-bake it even slightly, it gets too dry. This year we hosted just a small group of regular buddies to come be our king cake guinea pigs. Our first step was to share the two picture books in advance with them so the kids would understand what a king cake party is all about.
On the morning of our party, Eli helped me get the yeast going. While he was at school, I kept my kitchen timer close at hand so I could keep track of when to punch down the dough and then when to make it into an oval rope to slide into the oven. It was actually easy.
Time-wise it was a squeak, but I sprinkled on the last bit of colored sugar just before heading to pick Eli up from school. It turned out well! I wish I'd been able to find liquid purple food coloring, though. Mixing blue and red made for a fairly somber shade.
The kids didn't mind the dusky color. They were just happy for homebaked treats. And since they had already learned that a king cake contains a bead, bean, or tiny plastic baby as a prize, everybody's first action was to poke a finger in to search...
Ta dah! Usually the baby in your piece of king cake means you get to host the next party. Just before serving, though, we slid sneaky little babies into the bottom of each slice so every kid would get one. (Party stores usually carry tiny plastic babies in the baby shower section.)
As the preschooler party silliness commenced, babies were used as icing spoons...
Babies went swimming in chocolate milk...
Why, those goofy Mardi Gras babies even did wild rumpus dances!
A good time was had by all!
One Mama's Two Cents:
The king cake was easier to bake than I thought, so hopefully we'll expand our party next year. I'll purchase brighter liquid purple food color on the web so our sugars shine a bit better. (Ugh. I try to steer clear of food coloring, but sometimes you just gotta use a little. All things in moderation.) The cake is fairly messy because of the sugar sprinkled over the top, so an outdoor party may be best for younger kiddos. If you do your own party, let the kids know in advance that king cake is really more like cinnamon bread with glaze rather than the type of cake they get at birthday parties so nobody is disappointed. We told our friends beforehand, but some of the kids were still a little taken aback. However, most of them soon licked their plates clean!
I used a recipe I found in Louisiana Cookin' magazine (vol. 17, issue 1, Jan/Feb. 2014), but I doubled the cinnamon for a little more warm flavor.
A comparable recipe can be found at Allrecipes.com. (Click HERE.) I discovered that there are mixes for king cake and many local bakeries produce them for the Fat Tuesday. Although it is too late for 2014, mail order king cake is also a possibility. My magazine listed the top king cakes bakers in Louisiana and several deliver -- Ambrosia Bakery, Gambino's Bakery, Haydel's Bakery, and Manny Randazzo King Cakes.
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