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| A third King Cake- New Orleans Mardi Gras King Cake |
Plush, silver and gold jesters, or flamboyant bright-colored feathers floating on cold white masks are stacked high in stores in Venice, Italy. As you walk down the narrow sidewalks, and cross the canal over the Rialto bridge, you can imagine how Venetians used to celebrate Shrove Tuesday and the preceding two months several centuries back.
Only two hundred years ago, in 1867, Galveston, Texas, also began its carnival celebration during the same season, before Lent. There are traces of the Mardi Gras enthusiasm all year-round, with tell-tale metallic-colored neclaces on display or for sale in shops, reminding locals and tourists of the carnival bead-throwing tradition.
In addition to sharing the bead-throwing pastime, Galveston´s neighbor, New Orleans, is located only 60 km to the south of a place called "Mardi Gras Point" by a French Canadian Explorer in 1699. After New Orleans was established, it began its carnival celebrations in the 1730s.
The French that went to Louisiana from Canada took their King´s cake tradition with them around the 1850´s. When the first carnivals started shortly after, in 1872 it was said that a Russian visitor chose the Carnival colors. The next year, they voted on what the colors stood for--green for faith, purple for justice and gold for power. |
| Colorful French Market, where you can find the Mardi Gras King Cake all year-round, in New Orleans |
Before the Civil War the "bean" placed in the King Cake, in Louisiana, was gold, silver, diamonds, or other valuable; after that, it was peas, beans, pecans, or coins.
KING CAKE RECIPE AND PHOTOS
Here´s my first Mardi Gras King "cake wreck":
The second time around I decided to make a cinnamon roll recipe instead, and chose a mock cinnabon recipe:
Recipe
a.Cinnamon Roll Dough
b.Mock cinnabon frosting
c. Green, purple, and yellow food coloring
d. Mardi gras bead neclace
a.Cinnamon Roll Dough Find ingredients at the following link: (http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t73602.html )
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Heat milk and add yeast when lukewarm. Add butter, salt, eggs, white sugar and flour; then knead 8 minutes. Let it rise for 2 hours. Roll out dough into 16 x 21 inch rectangle. Spread melted butter on the dough; sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top. Roll into a long cylinder. Cut into 12 pieces. Let rise for forty minutes. Place in oven and bake the rolls for 15 minutes. Take out of oven and cool for 10 minutes before applying the frosting.
b. Mock Cinnabon frosting (Find recipe at: http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t73602.html )
Beat ingredients with mixer until creamy and fluffy. Divide into three equal parts, and color each differently, with the purple, yellow and green food coloring. Once the bread has cooled, apply with spatula on cinnamon rolls or King Cake.
Once the rolls come out of the oven and they´ve cooled, frost them in the Mardi Gras colors: green, yellow, and purple, and place some beads around them.
After you´ve admired your own King Cake decoration, cut it into pieces and enjoy! Here´s what it looks like inside:
References
http://www.bunkycooks.com/2011/03/king-cake-for-mardi-gras/
http://barbarabakes.com/2011/03/mardi-gras-king-cake/ (green-faith, purple-justice, gold-power)
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/812
http://www.history.com/videos/traditional-mardi-gras-king-cake#traditional-mardi-gras-king-cake video
http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/history.html
http://louisianatravel.com/mardi-gras-king-cake-recipe
http://gracessweetlife.com/2011/05/cinnabon-style-gourmet-cinnamon-rolls/
http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t73602.html
http://www.foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html#twelfthnight
http://www.geobeats.com/video/4563be/masks
