Went to look at the Civic today, it was a piece of junk. I wouldn't give him $2000 for it let alone $4000. Oh well.

After that I had nothing much else to do all the rest of the day so I started making a king cake. For the uninitiated, King Cake is a New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition. No, it's not Mardi Gras yet, that's the day before Ash Wednesday. However, the Mardi Gras season starts the day after Epiphany (or on Epiphany, I can't remember for sure) or 12th night.

The King Cake is a sweet bread similar to coffee cake, shaped into a ring, often filled with cinnamon, cream cheese, or fruit fillings, and iced and covered in purple, green, and gold coloured sugars (the colours of Mardi Gras -- also the colours of New Orleans).

There is usualy a small plastic baby or nut baked into the cake. In the old traditions there were Mardi Gras parties or balls and the person who got the piece with this item in it was crowned the king or queen of the ball and often was expected to host the next ball in the season. In modern tradition where King Cakes are consumed in small groups of family, friends, church gatherings, seances, satanic rituals, highschool reunions, the passerby on the street, or office parties the person who gets that piece is usualy expected to buy the next King Cake -- assuring that there will be plenty of King Cakes for the whole Mardi Gras season.

The bottom line is that King Cakes are GOOD. Amazingly good most of the time. There were a number of great bakeries in New Orleans that made King Cakes every year and a few in Mississippi (Paul's in Picayune has good ones that spread northward into the rest of the state). However, no one in the CSRA (Central-Savannah River Area) makes King Cakes. So I made one. I have no idea how good it is yet, saving it for lunch with my family tomorrow. But it sure LOOKS good, and the cream cheese filling was GOOD before I cooked it and I'm sure it's gotten gooder.

Here are pictures:




I used an almond since I don't have any babies here, but we have lots of almonds right now.
- posted by Nick @ 1/14/2006 06:04:00 PM | 0 comments