Happy Mardis Gras! It’s Carnival time down here in my home town of New Orleans. It’s a great opportunity to crate some colorful and fun treats. Here’s a round-up of the some cutest from around the web.
I hope these tutorials inspire you to get into this festive holiday with your family!
Sharon
(Note from Sharon: I have this same outfit and yes we do wear this when we go parading.)Speaking of Mardi Gras, that brings me to the topic of the day. I am not a cake decorator. I see some of the magnificent pieces of art that you all do and I am in complete awe. But, I am here today to talk about the king of all cakes – the King Cake.
If you are not from the New Orleans are, you might be asking yourself “what is a King Cake?” A king cake is a brioche-style cake similar to a coffee cake that is served throughout the carnival season in New Orleans. The carnival season begins on the 12th Day of Christmas, the Epiphany (January 6), which is the day the three kings visited the Baby Jesus. It is believed that it took the three kings 12 days to find their way to the stable. The carnival season ends on Mardi Gras Day, which is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
The king cake is circular, representing the circular path the three kings had to take to ward off King Herod, who was seeking them so that he could kill the Christ Child. The king cake is typically decorated with colored icing and/or sugar. The three colors are purple, green and gold, the colors of Mardi Gras, which represent justice, faith and power. I’ve also heard that the three colors represent the three gifts presented by the Magi (gold, frankincense, and myrrh.) Within each cake is hidden a small plastic doll, which represents the Baby Jesus. (In olden times, it used to be a porcelain doll, or a bean or pea.)
The making of a king cake should not be taken lightly. Since this is a yeast sweet bread, it has to be kneaded and left to rise twice, and is a day-long commitment. There are many bakeries that make excellent king cakes, so why in the world would anyone want to make their own? Just for the fun of it!!
My introduction into making home-made king cakes came many years ago. I found a recipe and tried it out on my family. Geez almighty, it was horrible. It came out heavy and hard as a rock, so much so that they called it the King Rock. My other sister, Janice, told her office mates about it and they accused her of exaggerating – that it couldn’t possibly have been that bad. So, they asked me to make a cake for their office party. Much to my dismay, it was just as horrible, but everyone was so polite and complimentary so as not to hurt my feelings, but I knew it was a bomb. I hope to think that I have gotten a little better at it over the years, but it is still tricky. I continue to try out new recipes and techniques, as I continue my search for perfection.
The recipe below is a really good one. It produces a light, but moist cinnamon cake. A few pointers for success: You have to get the yeast at just the right temperature (105 to 115 degrees) and let it foam for at least 10 minutes. You have to be careful not to add too much flour and not to over knead it. The dough should be slightly sticky, but elastic and able to hold its own shape, but never firm.
Let rise until double in bulk.
This is what it looks like right out of the oven.
And that’s me with my cake.
You can do these in a variety of ways. You can divide the rectangle of dough into thirds and braid it like this. I rolled these strings in the cinnamon sugar to get it on the outside, rather than on the inside.
(This recipe makes two medium size cakes.)
¼ cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 tablespoon (1 package) dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
5 ¾ to 6 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ cup warm milk (105 to 115 degrees)
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
finely grated zest of 1 lemon or orange
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
Frosting:
4 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
7 tablespoons hot water, more as needed
1/4 teaspoon almond flavoring
Hey everyone! It’s almost that time of the year here again in the Big Easy! Our guest blogger today is Lisa Bugeja of Flour Confections, and she’s here to share a quick and easy tutorial on Mardi Gras mask cupcake toppers. Take it away Lisa!
Supplies required:
Piping gel
Gumpaste (Confectioners Choice)
various Edible glitters (green, purple, gold and optional rainbow)
Mask cutter
Silpat mat
Flexible silicone container
Parchment paper
paintbrush
Isomalt
Airbrush color if needing to colour your own isomalt (Americolor)
Saran Wrap
Roll out white gumpaste to a thin consistency (#2 on pasta machine). Cut out masks using cutter.
Place masks on silpat mat while you prepare isomalt.
Following manufacturers instructions, place pre-coloured isomalt nibs in silicone container and melt in microwave. CAUTION HOT! DO NOT TOUCH
When fully melted, carefully pour isomalt into eye cavities – be careful not to overfill. Let cool until hard and ok to touch.
Once cooled, gently bend gumpaste mask to give shape and place ball of plastic wrap in behind to help maintain shape while gumpaste dries.
When masks are dry, using a paintbrush, apply piping gel to sections of mask where you want to adhere the edible glitter.
In order to do tri-colour effect, paint each section separately and apply glitter immediately to painted areas BEFORE moving on to another colour.
Once complete, place masks on top of iced cupcakes & enjoy!
*** Note: Isomalt will dull if placed in refrigerator or in high humidity – best to add to cupcakes just before serving.
Thank you Lisa! These are so cute!
Lisa Bugeja is the award winning artist & creative force behind Flour Confections Inc. & Baked and Beloved in Toronto, Ontario. Her work has been featured in numerous publications such as Brides magazine, Toronto Life, Wedluxe Magazine, American Cake Decorating, Bakers Journal, People.com to name a few. She has also been seen on CTV’s Canada AM; and as assistant to Ashlee Perkins on Food Network Challenge, and assistant to Matthew Somers on their winning episode of Cake Walk.
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Hey y’all! happy Mardi Gras!
It’s time for Mardi Gras down here in New Orleans! Another excuse to indulge in yummy treats ;)! This year, I have found some really great recipes to help you celebrate!
This first one is from my very own big sister, Barbara!
From SugarEd Productions:
AND we have a full length video tutorial on how to make this iconic cake in our online school. Here is a preview:
From Amanda Rettke of The Food Network:
From Baked Bree:
From Catch My Party:
From Spicy Southern Kitchen
From Dixie Delights:
![February 2012 591[3]](http://www.sugaredproductions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/February-2012-5913.jpg)
Throw Me Something, Mister! Cocktail
From Sweetopia:
From Sweet Pea’s Kitchen:
From NOLA Mommy:
From Plain Chicken:
From Myrecipes.com:
From Bakingdom:
Topsy Turvy Mardi Gras Cupcakes
Wow! So many cute (and yummy) ideas! I hope you are able to try a few of these and have fun celebrating Mardi Gras! I’m off to another parade!
Happy Mardi Gras!
Sharon!
Hey Sugar Friends!
It is Mardi Gras down here in New Orleans. One of my very favorite times of the year. Great family fun going to the parades and watching all the wonderful marching bands perform while trying to catch all the goodies thrown off the floats. I wish you could all come down here and experience it with me.
But even if you can’t come down and see it, you can still enjoy a bit of Mardi Gras at home by making your own King Cake! My sister Barbara is the master of homemade king cake, so let’s visit the blog archive where she will take you step by step through the process to ensure your success.
You can find the plastic king cake babies several places online like here. Note: be sure to tell the king cakers to be on the lookout for the baby to avoid choking.
I hope you guys give it a try. If you do, let me know how it turned out!
Happy Mardi Gras!
Sharon
(Note from Sharon: I have this same outfit and yes we do wear this when we go parading.)If you are not from the New Orleans are, you might be asking yourself “what is a King Cake?” A king cake is a brioche-style cake similar to a coffee cake that is served throughout the carnival season in New Orleans. The carnival season begins on the 12th Day of Christmas, the Epiphany (January 6), which is the day the three kings visited the Baby Jesus. It is believed that it took the three kings 12 days to find their way to the stable. The carnival season ends on Mardi Gras Day, which is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
The king cake is circular, representing the circular path the three kings had to take to ward off King Herod, who was seeking them so that he could kill the Christ Child. The king cake is typically decorated with colored icing and/or sugar. The three colors are purple, green and gold, the colors of Mardi Gras, which represent justice, faith and power. I’ve also heard that the three colors represent the three gifts presented by the Magi (gold, frankincense, and myrrh.) Within each cake is hidden a small plastic doll, which represents the Baby Jesus. (In olden times, it used to be a porcelain doll, or a bean or pea.)
My introduction into making home-made king cakes came many years ago. I found a recipe and tried it out on my family. Geez almighty, it was horrible. It came out heavy and hard as a rock, so much so that they called it the King Rock. My other sister, Janice, told her office mates about it and they accused her of exaggerating – that it couldn’t possibly have been that bad. So, they asked me to make a cake for their office party. Much to my dismay, it was just as horrible, but everyone was so polite and complimentary so as not to hurt my feelings, but I knew it was a bomb. I hope to think that I have gotten a little better at it over the years, but it is still tricky. I continue to try out new recipes and techniques, as I continue my search for perfection.
The recipe below is a really good one. It produces a light, but moist cinnamon cake. A few pointers for success: You have to get the yeast at just the right temperature (105 to 115 degrees) and let it foam for at least 10 minutes. You have to be careful not to add too much flour and not to over knead it. The dough should be slightly sticky, but elastic and able to hold its own shape, but never firm.
Let rise until double in bulk.
This is what it looks like right out of the oven.
And that’s me with my cake.
You can do these in a variety of ways. You can divide the rectangle of dough into thirds and braid it like this. I rolled these strings in the cinnamon sugar to get it on the outside, rather than on the inside.
¼ cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 tablespoon (1 package) dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
5 ¾ to 6 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ cup warm milk (105 to 115 degrees)
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
finely grated zest of 1 lemon or orange
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
4 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
7 tablespoons hot water, more as needed
1/4 teaspoon almond flavoring
