King Cake!

In case anyone was wondering, this is what a King Cake looks like before all that colorful icing. It looks...kind of like bread. Which is pretty much what it is.





Anyway, the basic process is that you make the dough, roll it out into a rectangle about 6" by 30" -- the longer it is, the thinner it will end up being in the middle. You can tell that my cake is kind of fat. Then, you spread the filling out on top of the dough. I used cream cheese. Next year, I might put some chopped pralines on top of the cream cheese-- yum! If you don't like cream cheese, you can brush the rolled-out dough with butter, then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. It'll be like a great big cinnamon roll! After you spread the filling on top, you roll the dough long-wise, crimp the edges, then bring the roll together into a circle-- like you see above.


The exciting part is where it's iced, and I know you're eager to see the finished product:







Yummy! Get me a knife!







Here is a link to the recipe I use for my king cake. Keep in mind that you can do pretty much whatever you want with your filling. This would probably make pretty good cinnamon rolls if you used the cinnamon/sugar filling and made some cream cheese icing...

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/dessert/king-cake.html

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Football!! (A bit late)

Like everyone else in Louisiana, (or at least, like everyone else in Louisiana SHOULD have been), I was rooting on the Saints last Sunday.

Also, like everyone else in Louisiana, I spent most of the Sunday before the game making food. Lots and lots of food.

The menu included: Black and gold cupcakes (the black iced cupcakes were chocolate with white chocolate icing, and the gold-iced cupcakes were yellow cake with lemon icing), oatmeal white chocolate cookies, Twice baked potatoes, meat pies, chips and tomatillo salsa, and a cheese tray.

I've included pictures of the twice baked potatoes, cupcakes, and cookies, since those were the only things I actually made myself.

Today, I lucked out and found some Meyer lemons at Whole Foods, so I'll be making something with those... I'm also in the process of making a King Cake for Mardi Gras, so there will naturally be some pictures of that later, too.

One last note: for Valentines Day, the Husband got me a DVD of my Big Fat Greek Wedding, a Charm Bracelet from a cute little boutique here in town, and these:

Aren't they beautiful?

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