Mardi Gras King Cake

This is a recipe I have been wanting to try forever! I lived in Louisiana for a few years and just loved this tradition, how people eat this cake all Mardi Gras season. It was a neat way to end the day on Fridays at the office. People in Louisiana are always very convivial and I've learnt so much about the various traditions (besides what people see on TV) of the Carnival season in Louisiana. So this is a salute to those whose friendship made these years fantastic!

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The recipe I found was this one. I don't remember when I found it but apparently it comes from the February 2006 edition of Southern Living. Well, I can tell you I am incredibly happy with the end result, so this recipe goes into the family recipe book!

A couple of notes from this recipe, fortunately, nothing major ;-)

• The recipe mentions that it yields 2 cakes of about 18 servings each. I'd say closer to 12-13.
• Baking is 14-16 minutes, I baked 20 minutes because there was no color on top.
• Prep time: 30 minutes -- it's a joke!
• You are told to use a heavy-duty electric stand mixer. I don't have one (yet!!! It's on my wishlist), so I used my hand-held mixer. Let's just say the poor thing couldn't handle mixing the dough. I got that "something's burning" smell. I ended up doing it by hand (actually with both hands). Good work out!
• Spreading the dough to a rectangle of 12 by 22 is hard. I'd say try 10 inches by 20. If you want everything to look neat, trim the rectangle to make it all even.
  
• When spreading the filling (I did the cinnamon sugar filling), know which way you will start rolling the dough and don't put filling on the edge you will end the roll with. The bottom of the cakes were a bit hard. I think sugar escaped and caramelized, making for a hard shell.
• You might want to do a better job than I did in sealing the edges together.
• The icing is powdered sugar, with a little lemon juice and water. The first icing I did was a little too runny, so I made the other one thicker.
• I used colored crystal sugar but my green was way too pale :-( Look for the Irish green sugar...
  

The result

A cake that is closer to a brioche than a typical cake. It is actually very close to a cinnamon bun. Delicious with coffee or hot chocolate.

I am very happy with the result! And proud of myself too! :-D