King Cakes – The Cake with a Baby Baked Inside! [Kicking Back with Jersey Joe] Feb24

King Cakes – The Cake with a Baby Baked Inside! [Kicking Back with Jersey Joe]...

Why would anyone bake a tiny baby doll inside a cake? The king cake is a succulent and fun way to celebrate Mardi Gras. It’s time to introduce everyone to this dessert that’s just a darn good time! A few years ago, a friend from New Orleans introduced me to the tradition of the king cake. The large and colorful cakes are a part of the party fun at Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras (or Carnaval) is several days of eating, parades, dances, and partying. The celebration comes to a head with Fat Tuesday, the last night before the Catholic Lent season begins, and at which time the faithful are expected to fast and obey church law. There are many different varieties of king cakes and countries around the globe have their own versions, with many being served at Christmas time. The cakes are usually decorated in Mardi Gras colors: purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power. Some of these high fat cakes are deep fried like a donut, while most are baked with some type of inner stuffing such as cream cheese, strawberry, or in true Louisianan style – cinnamon. The cakes are then coated with icing and sprinkles. I’ve enjoyed some on several occasions and each time it reminded me of eating a gigantic cinnamon bun. Most feature a small, plastic baby baked inside which is meant to resemble baby Jesus. Finding the piece containing the plastic kid, designates that person gets to receive special treatment such as “king of the day” and in many cases is expected to provide the cake for the next celebration. The host of the party can purchase a cake without the baby baked in, and insert into the cake just before serving to have an idea of where it is. ...

How a Band Aid Ruined My Pie Plans [Tall Drink of Nerd]

This is a beautiful apple galette. It was the first galette I’ve ever made and it came out of the oven so gorgeous, I could hardly contain my need to take a bite. But these simple, country pies were meant for the dinner party later that day. So I didn’t even nibble (ok, a little pinch of crust, just to be sure it wasn’t too bland or salty.) They smelled good, looked great and based on my nibbling, tasted yummy. But the success of these gorgeous pastries was undone by something as simple as a missing band-aid. These were made to impress our downstairs neighbor, who had invited my husband and I to her standing Tuesday night dinner party. Christina, the neighbor, is friendly and interesting. I had been building social circles in my neighborhood and this seemed like a great opportunity to make a buddy. In the building no less! Since baking makes me happy, but I only bake stuff to bring to other people, because if I ate as much as I wanted to bake, I’d weigh 4,000 pounds, this seemed like a good opportunity to get my bake on and feed my new friends. The recipe is super easy, especially as a galette, which is kind of free form so you don’t have to get too fussy. I adapted this recipe for apple pie cookies from Smitten Kitchen, into the galette form. I’d made the cookies for a dinner party earlier and they were a big hit, so I was confident the galette would rule. (You can see here that my cookies were a bit bigger than Smitten Kitchen’s. That’s because she had about 40 steps, which I was too lazy to follow. I also didn’t have various sizes of cookie...