King Cake with Cream Cheese Filling

Alright guys. I'm not dead. It has been an unforgiveably long time since I've posted, but I have many good excuses. The first being that I've hardly cooked anything. Then there was a long line of traveling. Spring break in Colorado, a business conference/competition in Dayton, Ohio, camping at Providence Canyon, etc etc. If you're intersted, I'll start talking about my trips at my craft blog soon. Plus all the making up of school and house work that comes along with that kind of crap. I'm still picking up the loose ends of my life, but my workload is steadily getting more under control. Oh, not to mention that I now FINALLY have a job. Oh yes, I will be money having. Or I will after I pay off all the traveling. Anywho. I'm posting this right now, without the recipe or any pictures so that I'll be forced to finish this and not put it off any longer. Hah! Done.



Remember Mardi Gras? Oh so long ago now, it seems. Me and two friends decided to have a get together to hang out and eat some good old Louisiana cooking. While they whipped up a tasty chicken and shrimp jambalaya, I set my heart on king cake. A leavened cake with a delicious baby inside? I'm in. Then I found an Emeril recipe with cream cheese filling. Sounds like heaven right? Well, not if I'm cooking it.

See, I let the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator. I don't think this would have been a problem if I hadn't been so rushed the next day. The dough was taking so long to thaw, let alone rise a second time, that I had to just go ahead and bake it. Well, since it rolled so thick (still cold), I really had to stretch to get enough. Plus, I have very little counter space so I had to roll in sections. Ugh. This turned the cake into something resembling a dense pastry. Drier and harder than I really wanted, but with the filling, it tasted like something I would like with coffee. Still tasty, but not king cake. Plus, I couldn't find a baby to sacrifice so I used a piece of candied ginger.



Notice the powdered sugar fiasco. I lost so much of it to a mixing distaster that I ran out of it and had to make a sugar "wash" as opposed to icing. Proof:





Considering that neither of my friends had ever had it, and one had never even heard of it, I think this was a poor introduction. However, we all enjoyed it for what it was and I have more confidence for next year.



King Cake