King Cake today

[Danno]

Here is my first King Cake of the Carnival season, turned out great!

http://www.nolacuisine.com/2007/01/06/king-cake-recipe/

[nakji]

Is this the same, or related to, Galette des Rois?

[K8memphis]

Better than awesome! Very refreshing, but man, King Cake Time already??

I love this recipe and of course it's all the stage for the star of the show,

"Place the baby trinket somewhere with the filling. "

Is that literally the photo of your cake? It's very well done.

[Danno]

Yes, the Louisiana reincarnation.

Is this the same, or related to, Galette des Rois?

←

[Danno]

Thanks for the nice compliments, that is my cake in the photo.

This year just seems to be flying by. Mardi Gras is an early one this year too, February 20th.

Better than awesome! Very refreshing, but man, King Cake Time already??

I love this recipe and of course it's all the stage for the star of the show,

"Place the baby trinket somewhere with the filling. "

Is that literally the photo of your cake? It's very well done.

←

[HungryC]

Nice job, Danno, esp the steen's in the filling. Ever tried putting marzipan filling inside? Beats the heck out of those goopy commercial cream cheese concoctions. Marzipan inside, then a simple glaze on top incorporating some citrus zest.

[Danno]

Thanks! Steen's is a great product, I use a lot of it.

I'll have to look into the Marzipan filling, sounds like a great idea.

Nice job, Danno, esp the steen's in the filling.  Ever tried putting marzipan filling inside?  Beats the heck out of those goopy commercial cream cheese concoctions.  Marzipan inside, then a simple glaze on top incorporating some citrus zest.

←

[highchef]

ah, 12th night. Thank God Mardi Gras is early, other wise it seems it goes on forever.

I make king cakes too, I actually like solo's almond filling for mine. Very 'almondy', 1 can is perfect/1 cake.

I'm not big on gimmicky cakes, i.e. bananna, strawberry, creamcheese, etc. I like a nice nutty center, not gooky..more along the lines of a coffee cake.

what recipe do you use? I modify a potica recipe. pretty much the same deal.

[NYC Mike]

Hey Dano, great looking cake! Love the blog too!

-mike

[bavila]

What great timing. I was just going to post a king cake question myself...

I'll be making king cake at my daughter's preschool next week, and doing a test run this weekend to try making 8-10 mini-cakes. I've made it a few times, and always found it pretty easy, just want to get my timing down. I figure I'll have my dough ready to go when we go to school, then divide it up according to how many kids are there (max 10), help them roll it out, spread on a filling (I'm leaning toward fruit preserves, though I usually use cream cheese), and let 'em bake so they can take them home.

Has anyone done miniature king cakes and have any advice?

Danno, I notice your recipe calls for refrigerating the dough. Is that for any particular reason?

Anyone have any other ideas for talking up the king cake with 2.5-5 year olds? I'm going to hit the party store for some trinkets. Oooh... and maybe I'll bring our copy of The Mardi Gras Dictionary.

I'll try to take pics and post later next week.

[HungryC]

Will you have a already-baked cake so that the kids can taste the finished cake? They might be more excited about the process if they can eat some, then make their own.

[bavila]

We had a great time today at Cypress Cove Friends baking 9 miniature king cakes. Over the weekend, I'd done a test run with a recipe from Emeril which I've used several times, but have never been excited about. The dough ingredients are very similar to Danno's recipe. The main difference seems to be letting the dough sit overnight.

Yesterday, I decided to give Danno's recipe a shot (by the way, Danno, it did not say where to add in the eggs, though perhaps you've fixed this by now). I was much happier with today's results -- much lighter and softer than my weekend cakes.

I didn't take as many pics as I would have liked as things move quickly in the world of preschoolers, and my camera battery died on top of that. But here are a few decent shots:

Miniature cakes fresh from the oven. I'd doubled Danno's recipe and split it into 9. The resulting size approximated bagels. Parchment paper helped out in labelling which was whose cake.

Close-up of the golden goodness.

My darling 4yo decorating her cake.

The kids had a blast spreading their own fillings and decorating. Especially about the decorating. I also brought beads that I'd found that my parents had brought up a year or so ago, and those were a hit too. There was no eating on site though, as the school nixes any and all sugary foods to avoid crash and burn syndrome.

I plan on making the Danno recipe again soon, but no more miniatures this year!

[Danno]

Those look wonderful, sounds like the kids had a great time!

By the way, thanks for letting me know about the misprint on the recipe, it's corrected now. I'll have to take my editor out to the woodshed for that one.

We had a great time today at Cypress Cove Friends baking 9 miniature king cakes.  Over the weekend, I'd done a test run with a recipe from Emeril which I've used several times, but have never been excited about.  The dough ingredients are very similar to Danno's recipe.  The main difference seems to be letting the dough sit overnight.

Yesterday, I decided to give Danno's recipe a shot (by the way, Danno, it did not say where to add in the eggs, though perhaps you've fixed this by now).  I was much happier with today's results -- much lighter and softer than my weekend cakes.

I didn't take as many pics as I would have liked as things move quickly in the world of preschoolers, and my camera battery died on top of that.  But here are a few decent shots:

Miniature cakes fresh from the oven.  I'd doubled Danno's recipe and split it into 9.  The resulting size approximated bagels.  Parchment paper helped out in labelling which was whose cake.

Close-up of the golden goodness.

My darling 4yo decorating her cake.

The kids had a blast spreading their own fillings and decorating.  Especially about the decorating.  I also brought beads that I'd found that my parents had brought up a year or so ago, and those were a hit too.  There was no eating on site though, as the school nixes any and all sugary foods to avoid crash and burn syndrome.

I plan on making the Danno recipe again soon, but no more miniatures this year!

←

[bavila]

Happy Mardi Gras season everyone. I'm slated to make mini-king cakes again this year for my daughter's school, and I was wondering if anyone had any different recipes. Thing is, the brioche just always comes out drier than I'd like. I was thinking of morphing a rugelach recipe into a king cake (namely getting the cream cheese into the dough). Any thoughts?

[gfron1]

I have local artists making their interpretations of baby Jesus for me right now and will have the cakes ready just in time for Mardi Gras - thanks for another recipe to try out!

[HungryC]

Hey B--rugelach dough sounds tasty, but can be fragile in larger sized pieces. A danish-style dough might be a little sturdier. Personally, I'm a fan of brioche all the way. Have you ever tried the "rich man's brioche" recipe in Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice cookbook? It is a very delicious, tender bread, and relatively easy to make if you have a stand mixer for the long kneading. It requires a long, cool autolyse. You just can't tell anyone who eats it how much butter it contains!

[gfron1]

Here's my King Cake - from Chef Folse's recipe. I filled with with blueberry and almond.

[TAPrice]

Looks good Rob. What made you decide to go with Zulu colors instead of purple, green and gold?

[gfron1]

It is actually the traditional colors - just bad pic

I mean...I chose the Zulu colors to celebrate the diversity and tradition of the season

[bavila]

Hi Y'all.

Just wanted to report that after checking out HungryC's suggestion (2 pounds of butter! ) I decided to just do Danno's recipe with 2 sticks of butter. It was quite yummy -- the dough was near the softness of a croissant, which made me very happy. I made 3 batches. Two went to the school which we filled with preserves only for simplicity's sake, and one stayed at home for us. I love cream cheese filling, and this year added a smattering of chocolate chips which I won't add again.

Thanks!

B