The Housewife Wannabe Cooks: Mardi Gras King Cake

King Cake is one of those desserts that I seriously dream about. You think I'm lying, but if I were to go to New Orleans right now, I'd buy about 15 of them. And probably down them within a week. You think I'm kidding. I'm not.

No, seriously. I love King Cake.

Anyhow, I was first introduced to King Cake in middle school French class when Mme Dodson was teaching us about Mardi Gras. We would have a Mardi Gras celebration and order a King Cake from La Madeleine and whoever got the baby received a prize. While the King Cake was good, my highly developed 7th grade taste buds were not thoroughly impressed.

HOWEVER! My true affair with King Cake began in 2006 when I lived with my good friend Nicole. Nicole's mom is originally from New Orleans and every year around Mardi Gras, we'd get a fresh King Cake from deep in the French Quarter. And when these King Cakes would arrive... WATCH. OUT.

I used to try and trick myself into thinking that I wasn't eating that much, because I'd just cut a sliver here and a sliver there. And then I would look at the King Cake and realized I'd already eaten half of it. And I hadn't even left for work yet.

No, seriously. I love King Cake.

I'd always wanted to attempt to make it, but never really felt like making dough from flour, yeast, rolling it out, etc. I like cooking and baking, but nothing that intense unless it's a really special occasion. However, few weekends ago I was flipping through the TV and because it was Sunday morning and there were no crime shows on, I settled on Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. Sidenote: This woman has some really good ideas, but damn if there isn't something about her that makes me want to punch her square in the jaw. Not sure what it is. But, the recipe seemed easy, so thought I would try it.

Two caveats: Although Mardi Gras was today, I actually made this a couple of weeks ago. Sprinkling purple, green, and yellow sugar didn't seem appropriate at the time, so I just used chocolate sprinkles instead. Also, since I wasn't making this for Mardi Gras and no special guests in particular, I didn't insert the plastic baby. If you wanted to do that, you would hide the baby in one of the braids after removing the cake from the oven and before frosting it.

What you need:

1 can breadsticks
1 (12 oz.) can whipped cream cheese frosting
1/4 c. whipping cream
Purple sanding sugar
Green sanding sugar
Gold (yellow) sanding sugar

1. Open the breadsticks and press together the ends of two sticks to make one long stick. Repeat with the remaining breadsticks, forming six long sticks.



2. Take 3 of the long breadsticks and press the ends together.



3. Braid the breadsticks together.



4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the remaining breadsticks.

5. Coil braids around one another, forming an oval shape. Press ends together.



6. Bake at 400 degrees for 16-20 minutes or until golden brown.


7. While baking, combine the frosting and whipping cream in a saucepan over low heat. Heat glaze until smooth, stirring constantly.

8. Pour the glaze over the cake and sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles... err, sanding sugars. Whatev.

Now, let it be said that this cake is good. It would obviously take a significant amount more work to get it to the New Orleans French Quarter caliber, but it was still really good (read: it was gone in less than 24 hours). Matt especially liked it because it "wasn't too sweet." I didn't know there was such a thing.

But I think it needs a little more flavor.

I did a little searching and found that many of the recipes that make this from scratch include cinnamon, jam, stuff with flavor. Then, I found this recipe and while I don't necessarily want to make mini King Cakes, I do like the cinnamon roll aspect. I think next time I'll use the exact same recipe from Sandra Lee, except I'll try canned cinnamon rolls.