recipe reviews for:

Mardi Gras King Cake

“The King Cake is a New Orleans tradition that involves a pastry, a small plastic baby, and a party. The King Cake is baked with a small plastic baby hidden inside, the person who gets the slice with baby in it has to host the next party. Make sure to buy a new small plastic baby so you can get the full effect from this cake! Sprinkle with purple, green and gold sugar, or decorate with whole pecans and candied cherries. Note: Be sure to tell everyone to inspect their piece of cake before they begin eating it. To be extra careful, use a plastic toy baby that is too large to swallow, or hide an orange wedge or 3-4 pecan halves inside the cake (avoid items that may hurt someone's teeth) and then simply place the honorable toy baby outside on the top of the cake for all to see and adore!”

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Reviewed: Feb. 2, 2008

I made this for my Bunco party. It was a very easy and good recipe. I did double the filling because I felt that 1/2 the called for amount was too little for both cakes. I also doubled the glaze. Note about the glaze. If you apply the glaze when the cake is hot you need to move fast and put the colored sugar on quickly or the glaze will make a crust and the sugar will not stick. I will make this again. I want to try it with a cream cheese filling. Yum!!!

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Beth

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Jan. 27, 2008

I made this last night for 15 hungry people at our poker night. I used the bread machine method (liquids first, then solids, with the yeast on top) and it worked great. For the filling I left out the raisins, and for the frosting I used milk instead of water in the powdered sugar and just eyeballed it; it was more like 4-5 tbsp milk instead of 2, making the consistency easy to pour over the cake. I made my own purple sugar, about 1/3 c sugar, 3 drops red food coloring, and 3 drops blue. If you do this I suggest mixing the food coloring together before adding it to the sugar, and it takes quite a bit of stirring to break up the colored bits, but it worked great. Tip: pour the colored sugar on RIGHT AFTER

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Johanna

Cooking Level: Intermediate

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Reviewed: Jan. 17, 2008

I make several of these every year. Everyone loves them. I add a little more flour to the dough than the recipe calls for. The icing I use is a basic powdered sugar, vanilla, butter and milk one.

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MARYB8

Cooking Level: Expert

Living In: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

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Reviewed: Jan. 17, 2008

We loved this King cake! I changed this recipe using JNFAGAN's review because I needed it to go in the bread-maker, and I am lactose intolerant. I made a lot of changes so I only gave it 4 stars. I halved the recipe, used applesauce and rice milk in place of butter and milk, increased the filling amount, and I added fresh lemon juice to the glaze to make it brighter. Yummy! I put it in the bread-maker on the dough setting and then took it out, added the filling, and followed the directions from there. It baked up beautifully, but it was more of a bread texture than cake. I let my kids munch down most of it at snack time with peanut butter spread on top of each slice. My two toddlers LOVED it! My husband did too :).

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Breanna W.

Cooking Level: Intermediate

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Reviewed: Jan. 1, 2008

Best results I've had making a King Cake! I got rave reviews and requests for the recipe. I did not add the raisins due to familial preference. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

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bubbles

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Reviewed: Sep. 26, 2007

Made this last year for the first time, came out wonderful! Definitely will come back to this recipe in the future!

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Reviewer:

emma

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Mary Esther, Florida, USA

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Reviewed: Jul. 3, 2007

I have lived here in the south ALL my life. We are actually 45 minutes from New Orleans. Down here, we "stuff" our king cakes with srtawberry filling, pineapple, bavarian cream, cream cheese, caramel pecan or you can have it plain- it's your choice. Anyway, this was just OK. Not at all like what you get in the bakery. It so easy to just pick one up during the season than to go through the trouble to make this. If you don't live here, then maybe ignorance is bliss and you'll love it. Sorry- it's my opinion.

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Marci B.

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Reviewed: Feb. 20, 2007

Great Recipe! I, too, skipped the raisins. I needed a bit more water in the glaze to make it run. I will use this dough as a base for breakfast breads in the future, too.

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Karen Bird

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Reviewed: Feb. 19, 2007

Oh My Goodness!! This is DEVINE!! I just made it and could not wait till morning! This tastes so good! My husband loves it too! So do the kids! You SO have to try it!

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GR8PL8TS

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Living In: Plainfield, Illinois, USA

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Reviewed: Feb. 16, 2007

raisins in king cake???? yuck! and for those who are interested, there is much more to the story of the baby in the cake. although now many anticipate the the finder will host the next party, it was originally used to bestow the honor of royalty for the mardi gras balls.

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little bear

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Reviewed: Feb. 15, 2007

This recipe was very good, I made it for my family and took one to work and they were both big hits! I grew up in New Orleans and it was delicious! I used cream cheese frosting (like for carrot cake) in one and german chocolate frosting (evaporated milk, coconut, pecans, etc) in the other instead of the recommended filling. I also spread the filling in the middle and folded the dough in half instead of rolling it over itself. Definitley recommended!

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Kamy

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Reviewed: Feb. 3, 2007

This turned out really well, but I didn't like the filling- I'll probably keep the dough and use a different filling next time. By the way, its super easy to half this recipe (which I did) since it makes two cakes.

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HHILLHOUSE

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Columbia, Missouri, USA

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Reviewed: Jan. 6, 2007

Great recipe! I iced it with a mixture of powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla, and used red and green sugar to decorate it, since we served it at an Epiphany party (Three Kings' Day). It was a big hit. And it was HUGE - served 40 people (20 adults, 20 children), not 16! I have a whole extra king cake left over because the recipe made such a large one. But I don't mind! I also substituted a filling of cream cheese sweetened with a little powdered sugar. Yum!

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frugalteacher

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Reviewed: Nov. 15, 2006

this is so easy to do and taste great. I am making 16 loafs for a fudraiser and it hasnt been hardly any work.

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GINNEYROSE

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Reviewed: Jul. 10, 2006

We had our annual pool theme party over the weekend, this year was Mardi Gras...the cake was a hit. I had scaled it for 40..the cakes were huge, however great tasting...I omitted the raisins, and increased the Pecan a bit. Everyone got right into finding the baby or NOT..it was a lot of fun, great for the theme party!

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RICKMM

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Reviewed: Mar. 29, 2006

I have used this recipe now for 2 years, and it is wonderful. One of the girls I work with was raised in New Orleans and said that this recipe is the best she has ever had. She even asked me to make it for her this year to take to her families Mardi Gras party and they all agreed it was the best. They said it is less dry than the ones they commenly see in New Orleans and had more filling.

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Jo M G

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Reviewed: Mar. 3, 2006

I baked this for a French party, and it was quite good. I recommend making just one cake (use a 16 x 20 rectangle of dough), but whatever you do, double the filling - it's the best part! Once you've spread the filling on the rolled-out dough, cut off the edges to make a a neat rectangle and so you don't have large doughy parts in the cake. It was great without the raisins. Try making the frosting more interesting by adding butter, sour cream, and vanilla.

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HANNAH22

Cooking Level: Intermediate

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Reviewed: Mar. 2, 2006

Perfect for my Mardi Gras get together.

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JDVMD

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA

Living In: Paducah, Kentucky, USA

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Reviewed: Feb. 26, 2006

I had a Mardi Gras party last night and two of the guests were from New Orleans. They loved this King Cake. I did as a few other people suggested and used a different filling. I found another recipe for King Cake on mardigras.com and used the filling part of that recipe. It calls for cherry pie filling and a delicious cream cheese mixture. Everyone at the party enjoyed the cake. It is like bread--I felt like I was making cinnamon rolls. If you want a more "cakey" texture, this is not your recipe.

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