It's the culmination of two weeks of Carnival, the starkest possible contrast with tomorrow's Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of introspective Lent, leading up to Easter. For Christians, this is similar to the Jewish month of Elul, where we try to improve ourselves before Rosh Hashanah and make us worthy of forgiveness on Yom Kippur.
Mardi Gras is usually close to the Jewish festival of Purim, in which we also dress up in costume ("fancy dress" for those speaking the Queen's English), party hard, and get drunk. For us, Purim comes about 30 days before Passover. This year it will be on March 21, close enough to the first day of Spring.
Mardi Gras is not my religion, and not really a fascination, but I've been exposed to it by a childhood friend whose father was relocated to New Orleans, by APCUG (Association of PC User Groups) conferences at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas (which has a Mardi Gras theme), and most recently by NCIS: New Orleans.
The usual things we associate with Mardi Gras are costumes and masks, beads, tokens, parades, music, and King Cake.
As with Easter candies, King Cake is something I've never had the chance to try... but I've seen the recipes (or kits?) over at King Arthur Flour. While I'd've preferred to have my first experience of this delicacy from a professional bake shop, the costs I was seeing were prohibitive — so it was off to King Arthur Flour's website and DIY.
After looking at the recipes, I selected their basic (is there anything basic about King Cake?) recipe as well as a King Cake flavored cupcake recipe. Since the King Cake is a risen yeast bread, I made the cupcakes while the King Cake was going through its first rising. I didn't have purple sugar, but I did have some purple stars from this past summer's USS AVENGER anniversary party. I also didn't have yellow sugar, but I had gold...
Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the recipe only makes a dozen cupcakes, and two of that number disappeared before I had time to make the icing. From the two recipes together, I surmise that the basic "King Cake" taste is citrus and vanilla, with an undetectable undercurrent of nutmeg. I know that nutmeg and almond are flavors that both enhance vanilla, but I think next time through, I'd rather taste the nutmeg...
I was a bit disappointed in the King Cake recipe. I opted for units of grams rather than volume, which I find a more accurate way of measuring. Unfortunately, the measurement for instant yeast remained in volume units, so I have no idea if I had too much or too little. Either I had too much filling for the cake, or I had let it get too loose, so I had a mess trying to fold the dough over the filling — not to mention trying to get it all into a ring! And finally, there was no indicator other than color to test whether or not the bread was fully baked, nor was there a range of times to check (e.g., 25-30 minutes after tenting).
That said, I ended up letting the thing rise a bit too long on the second rising, and my foil tent ended up leaving the edges of the cake exposed.
I left the cake to cool while I went to work, where I purchased purple and yellow sanding sugars, as well as some cute crown-shaped sprinkles to make the cake really "kingly". As I don't subscribe to the religious context of Mardi Gras, I didn't worry about charms or a baby.
What looked like a "thick, but pourable" glaze in my mixer ended up more spreadable than pourable, and I had to press the sugar into the icing so it wouldn't fall off. This is what came out.
To my mind, it was too flat and wide, and the bottom got a bit burned despite baking it on parchment.
Inside, there was a very thin layer of filling. The overall taste reminded me of the round Danish-like coffee rings Mom used to bring home from the store, and the icing reminded me of Cinnabon icing (too much and too sweet).
At some point, I might want to try variations on the recipe, but not decorated for Mardi Gras. Maybe not even iced, but used as a base for French Toast?
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