Mardi Gras King Cake

Ok this is sort-of cheating, since I used a box to make this cake. But I promise it was the most complicated box mix I've ever made! A few family members recently took a trip to New Orleans, and brought me back a box of Mam Papaul's Mardi Gras King Cake Mix. Having never heard of Mardi Gras King Cake, nor having ever been to New Orleans, I was pretty excited to try it out. I made it on Sunday, and today being Mardi Gras, decided to come out of my blog-hibernation to post about it.

Ingredients

1 box Mam Papaul's Mardi Gras King Cake Mix (includes cake mix, yeast, praline mix, icing and sprinkles)
1 large Egg
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Butter

Equipment

• Stand mixer (*The mix comes with a resealable bag that you can use instead of a stand mixer, but the instructions were much less complicated with the stand mixer.)
• Cookie sheet

Directions

In the stand mixer combine the cake mix and the yeast.

Mix with the mixing attachment until completely blended.

Add 1 cup of very warm tap water. This was actually a little amusing, because I had just done a ton of dishes after making this month's Darking Cook's Challenge (you'll have to wait til the 14th to see it though!), my dishwasher was running, and John was taking a shower. So I actually had no "very warm tap water." Instead I heated up my "very cold tap water" on the stove, and forgot about it, so then I only had "boiling hot tap water," which would have killed my yeast. Anyway, long story short, it took me several iterations of pouring out a bit of boiling water, adding cold tap water, and repeating, until it was the right temperature. Silly me.

Add 1/2 cup of butter, and mix until completely combined.

Add the egg and mix completely.

Now switch to the dough hook attachment

and mix until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl. 

At this point the dough is actually much stickier than any bread dough, but more solid than a cake batter.

Let it rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. The box recommended turning the oven on to its lowest setting, then turning it off before putting the dough in. That's what I did, and it seemed to work, although it took closer to an hour to double in size.

Lightly flour a clean work surface and a rolling pin.

Gently roll the dough out into a rectangle 30 inches long by 5 inches wide.

In a small bowl, combine the praline mix with 2 tablespoons melted butter.

Spread the mixture evenly over the dough

and carefully roll the dough in from the long side, like a jelly roll.

Pinch the edges to seal.

Shape the long roll into a ring on a cookie sheet,

again placing in a slightly warm oven for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Bake at 375º for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Let it cool completely.


Once it's cooled, mix the icing mixture with 2 tablespoons water.

Spread it as evenly as possible over the cooled cake (this wasn't easy, as my icing was actually pretty thick. I think I'd use more water next time).

Before the icing dries, decorate with alternating purple, orange and green sprinkles.

Traditionally you're supposed to put a small plastic toy underneath the cake, and whoever gets the piece that the toy is under gets a prize. The box actually included a small plastic baby (Baby Jesus?), but I left it at home when I brought this to serve at my grandmother's house :P Oh well, next time.


This definitely tasted more like a slightly sweet bread than a cake, which I loved, because I don't have much of a sweet tooth. The praline swirl in the middle added the perfect amount of sweetness. I think next Mardi Gras I'm going to try to make this from scratch, but seeing how complicated the box recipe is, I'm so glad I started with this first!