King Cakes at Mardi Gras

What does it mean if you find the baby in the king cake? To understand what the fuss is about, you must first know what a king cake is I guess. And who better to explain than my good friend Ryan Boudreaux known to all as Cajun Chef Ryan. This is what he posted last year:

  "The typical King Cake is an oval or round shaped dough which is formed from a yeast risen sweet dough similar to cinnamon roll or Danish dough. Recipes vary from bakery to restaurant to grocery, but the basic King Cake dough is laced with lots of cinnamon and sugar and topped with icing and then sprinkled with tinted sugars of purple, green and gold. Many variations of fillings are available also depending on the shop, but some of my favorite fillings are cream cheese, raspberry, lemon, cherry, blueberry and my all time favorite is my chocolate filled King Cake. Inside each king cake is a small plastic baby, which the baker gently hides after it is baked and cooled."





Find Ryan's complete article including the history of the king cake here.



Chef Ryan's King Cake recipe and article on Twelfth Night (plus his updated 2011 version recipe) .

Marguerite's (Cajun Delight) King Cake recipe.





Read the article by Matt Cuthbert from Al.com about the meaning of finding the baby and to find recipes including a gluten free one and cupcakes too.



And here are more recipes supposedly by John Folse, Kit Wohl, the Times-Picayune, John Besh ... all from Mr. Lake's Nonpompous Food Forum ... (no lie).... the Mr. Lake's New Orleans Forum... Enjoy!