King Cake

King Cake

I was introduced to King’s cakes a few years ago when we visited New Orleans for Mardi Gras and I loved all the wonderful food. It was the first time I tried cray fish and other traditional Mardi Gras foods but the gumbo and King’s cake are what calls me back to the area.

Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday”, referring to the practice of eating richer, fatty foods on the last night  before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season. In general Mardi Gras also refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after the Epiphany or King’s Day  (which traditionally falls on January 6) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the first day of fasting and occurs 46 days before Easter.

I loved the fact that in New Orleans the Christmas trees are redecorated in purple, green, and gold items  and allowed to remain as Mardi Gras trees.

These colors were chosen  by Rex, the King of the Carnival,  in 1872 to honor the visiting Russian Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich Romanoff, whose house colors were purple, green and gold. The 1892 Rex Parade theme “Symbolism of Colors” affirmed the colors’ meaning which are purple for justices, green for faith, and gold for power.

The traditional King’s cake are made with yeast  and have  a sugar cinnamon filling. A small plastic baby representing Jesus is  hidden inside the cake after it is baked. Tradition says that whoever finds the baby has to host the next party. This recipe uses Bisquick instead of yeast  which means it will take less time to make so  I decided to try this recipe.

Makes 10-12 servings

Streusel Topping

1/3 cup Bisquick Mix

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup firm butter or margarine

Coffee Cake

1-3/4 cups Bisquick  Mix

3 teaspoons granulated sugar

2/3 cup milk or water

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

For decoration: Glaze : 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons liquid and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Purple, green and gold food color

Purple, green and gold sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a Bundt pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix 1/3 cup Bisquick mix, brown sugar and cinnamon. Use a pastry blender or fork to cut the butter into the mixture until crumbly.

In medium bowl, stir all coffee cake ingredients until blended. Sprinkle 1/2 of the streusel topping mix in bottom of Bundt pan. Spoon batter over streusel topping. Sprinkle remaining streusel topping over the batter.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool a few minutes, then place a platter over Bundt pan and turn cake out onto platter.

Divide container of frosting mix into 3 small bowls. Color one bowl green, one bowl purple and one bowl gold. Microwave each 5 to 10 seconds, then drizzle over cake in repeating color order. Top each color with the same color sugar