Mardi Gras King Cake

This week we got together for MIHM on Fat Tuesday and decided to celebrate Mardi Gras with a New Orleans themed night! I knew about King Cake from my trip to NOLA in 2008 and my mom and I thought it would be a great challenge since neither of us had ever made anything like it before. 

After googling a few different recipes, some of which called for the dough to rise for over 12 hours, we chose this recipe which was relatively easy to follow. We used RapidRise yeast to try and cut down on the time we'd have to wait for the dough to rise. We were trying to get this cake baked before the middle of the night! 

Dough ingredients. 

Following the recipe, we combined the butter, milk, vanilla extract, yeast, water, flour and sugar to make the dough. Then we placed the dough onto a floured cutting board, kneading it for 8 minutes until it was smooth and stretchy. This was such an arm/hand workout! 

Working my hand muscles.

After kneading the dough, we set it in an oiled bowl, covered it in plastic wrap and waited two hours for the dough to double in size. Some Downton Abbey DVDs kept us entertained while waiting! 

Pre-rising.

It did take about two hours to rise, and then we rolled out the dough into a 10 by 16 inch rectangle. Then we spread the cinnamon, brown sugar and butter filling onto the dough. 

Not quite a perfect rectangle but it works!

The toughest part was rolling up the dough with the filling and twisting it into a circle. So tough, we don't have a photo. The dough and filling were really thick, so twisting it into a circle was a bit challenging. The cake was probably 4 inches tall after rolling it up like a jelly roll, but the ends were skinner so our cake was not at an even height all the way around. Before baking, we placed a ramekin in the middle to the cake would keep its shape in the oven.

Before baking, we cut slashes 1/2 deep into the top of the dough.

Straight out of the oven and bursting at the seams! 

After cooling the cake for about 20 minutes, we whisked together milk and confectioners sugar for frosting and added yellow, green and purple sprinkles generously on the cake.  

A beautiful king cake made by two California girls! 

Cinnamon filled center, yummmm.

We had a great time making this cake and learned a few new skills along the way. Making the dough from scratch was a new challenge for us, which is what MIHM is all about - challenging ourselves and learning new techniques. Our King Cake tasted like a giant cinnamon role with tougher crust, but we could have baked it for about 5-10 minutes longer. Because our cake was thicker than it should have been, the center of the roll was still a bit doughy. 

The Girls Team loved our King Cake and would encourage all of our readers to try making their own! It took some strong hands and a little patience, but this cake was worth it! I love everything about New Orleans and am proud to say I've tackled this southern tradition with my mom. So from the Girls Team to you, Happy Mardi Gras!