So at about 11 a.m., we were standing in a furniture store buying a bed *yee!* and the snow started coming down pretty heavily. Within a half hour, it was pretty obvious this snow would be sticking.
We headed out on foot and walked around downtown through the snow, going in and out of shops, and having a warm gooey lunch at a packed cafe.
When we returned home in the afternoon, I made me a king cake.
Yep.
A king cake.
Didn't think you could make those at home? Well you can! And my friend Claire shared a recipe she tried and I knew I had to try it.
I'm always scared of recipes with yeast (don't ask...) and so I stood by anxiously waiting for my yeast to activate (and had to throw out two batches before it finally did) and then I got to baking. The whole recipe itself took a lot of time with all the risings and what not, but it was worth the 'wasted' afternoon (so not wasted).
Because the recipe itself is more like an essay rather than a step-by-step recipe, I will simply give you a link here.
Per Claire's advice, I made a few minor changes in the recipe. I am more of a plain king cake type of girl, and that recipe was a cream cheese and berries king cake (really?) and so I did a butter cinnamon sugar filling instead. I rolled the dough out more (the recipe says 18 inches long, 7 inches wide, I did more 18 in long and 12-14 in wide) and made more cinnamon sugar so that there's plenty of sugar and butter to go around. Have you ever seen a naked king cake? ;)
At the official taste testing after dinner, Bogdan was amazed and claimed it was even better than Mandeville Bake Shop King Cake (I don't know about that...!) but it was definitely delicious.
So all of you expat Louisianans out there, and/or bakers who want to try something new, I'd totally recommend this recipe.
Happy Mardi Gras yall!
Looks yummy. Wish we lived closer so we could enjoy your culinary treasures.
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I wish you did too!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it came out! Yours looks like a bakery king cake.
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