King Cake and recipe

Courtesy of the Times Picayune's Creole Cookbook, this recipe for the famous cake known as King Cake and also known as Twelfth Night Cake or Gateau de Roi has Creole roots. The custom of making a King Cake originated and is directly related to the old Creole custom of choosing a king and queen on King's Day, or Twelfth Night to reign on Fat Tuesday. In every King Cake is a tiny plastic or porcelain baby.

As part of the Christian faith, the coming of the wise men bearing gifts to the Christ Child is celebrated twelve days after Christmas. It is referred to as the Feast of the Epiphany or Little Christmas on the Twelfth Night. This is a time of celebration, exchanging gifts and feasting. Today, the tradition continues as people all over the world gather for festive Twelfth Night celebrations. A popular custom was and still is the baking of a special cake in honor of the three kings called "A King's Cake."

In a carnival city such as New Orleans or Mobile, the custom of the King Cake party was expanded many years ago to everyone, as this Examiner fondly remembers. King Cake parties in the fourth and fifth grade were for the most part, the first foray into socialization (boy/girl parties).  When offered a slice of the cake and the plastic baby was in your piece, you were responsible for picking a king or queen. It now became your responsibility to host the next week’s King Cake party. Good memories! Atlantans should pick up the tradition. It's fun!

If you don’t want to make a cake but are considering having a Mardi Gras party, in Atlanta, King Cakes may be purchased at your local Kroger’s  and Copeland’s Restaurants until March 8th, Mardi Gras Day.

Recipe

• 2 lbs flour
• 12 eggs
• 1 C sugar
• 1 lb. butter
• 1/2 oz. yeast
• ¼ C scalded milk
• 1/2  oz. salt
• Colored sugar for decoration (purple, yellow and green)

To make the Cake, take a pound and a half of the  flour, and put it in a wooden bowl. Make a hole in the center of the flour, and put in a half ounce of yeast, dissolved in a little warm water. Add milk or tepid water to make the dough, using milk if you want it to be very rich and delicate. Knead and mix the flour with one hand, while adding milk. Make dough that is neither too stiff nor too soft, and when perfectly smooth set the dough to rise in a moderately warm place, covering with a cloth. Remember that if you use milk to make the dough it must be scalded, that is, must be heated to the boiling point, and then allowed to grow tepid. Let the dough rise for five or six hours, and, when increased to twice its bulk, take it and add the reserved half pound of flour, into which you will have sifted the salt. Add six eggs, beaten very light with the sugar and butter, and mix all well together, kneading lightly with your hands, and adding more eggs if the dough is a little stiff.

Then knead the dough by turning it over on itself three times, and set to rise again for an hour or three-quarters of an hour. Cover with a cloth. At the end of this time take it up and work it again lightly, and then form into a great ring, leaving of course, a hole in the center. Pat gently and flatten a little. Have ready a baking pan, with a buttered sheet of paper in it, and set the central roll in the middle.

Cover the pan with a clean, stiff cloth, and set the Cake to rise for an hour longer. When well risen, set in an oven a few degrees cooler than that used for baking bread (360°); let bake for an hour and a half; if medium, an hour, and if very small, a half hour. Glace the Brioche lightly with a beaten egg, spread lightly over the top before placing in the oven. Decorate with colored sugars.

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