But my better solution: Vendredi Gras, Mardi Gras on Friday! And it would not be a Lent-violating extension without some king cake (Recipe here).
Kids, do you know what it is that makes like worth living? Is it friendship? Rainbows? Kindness? No, it's fermentation, the process that turns useless sugars into delicious alcohol! Oh, and makes bread bigger and your kitchen smell like beer when you're making a king cake.
If I'd had a more leisurely week, king cake would've been a perfect Simonsen recipe. Mix yeast, water, and sugar, go watch TV. Mix some stuff, ignore it for a few hours. Roll it out, fill it, shape it, let it sit for another hour. But having work and class and karate, Thursday night king caking was kind of frantic.
Once the dough's risen for two hours, you punch it. After punching it, in theory you split it in half. Whenever I've made this, I split the dough up to make three king cakes. Roll out one section and "sprinkle" your filling inside. What this actually means it "attempt to use a spoon to neatly spread filling before giving up and using your fingers." Other people on AllRecipes.com have used different fillings; I used the brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans version for all three cakes. Because pecans are awesome.
After shaping the cake and spending way too much time trying to keep the ends together, you're supposed to cut vent holes. That probably represents something European and/or Catholic. Or maybe the whole thing would explode it the oven if you didn't. (A special Jupiter Star Power prize for our first reader to explode a holiday themed pastry in the oven!)
Things I've learned from rushed king cake making: you can totally use the slightly less rock hard brown sugar you find in the back of the cupboard, and if you hastily add your filling without thoroughly mixing, it starts oozing out your linked cake-ends.
Part of the king cake tradition is shoving a plastic baby inside. According to Wikipedia, this is a Southern US tradition (those losers in France and Spain use beans), and all your jerks who've found babies would owe me cake if I trusted you to make/obtain one.
Do not even consider putting the baby inside the cake before baking it.
After all the rising and the slicing, your deliciously filled king cake has the perfect opportunity to look like it's puking up brown sugar or oozing from its multiple wounds.
Even if you're in a hurry after 4+ hours of preparing/baking, you still need to take the time to decorate your king cake. Which you can definitely rush because a properly decorated king cake looks like you were already drunk and had access to sprinkles. Or get some kids to do it. Kids love pouring sprinkles on things.
The frosting is confectioner's sugar and water. Since this was the next day, I put the cakes back in the oven for a few minutes on 200-250 to warm them up a little. Don't even bother with a knife; just spoon your frosting on and scoop up whatever tries to get away.
If I were smart, I would've remembered to shove the babies inside before covering the cakes with sticky stuff.
If I'd had a more leisurely week, king cake would've been a perfect Simonsen recipe. Mix yeast, water, and sugar, go watch TV. Mix some stuff, ignore it for a few hours. Roll it out, fill it, shape it, let it sit for another hour. But having work and class and karate, Thursday night king caking was kind of frantic.
Once the dough's risen for two hours, you punch it. After punching it, in theory you split it in half. Whenever I've made this, I split the dough up to make three king cakes. Roll out one section and "sprinkle" your filling inside. What this actually means it "attempt to use a spoon to neatly spread filling before giving up and using your fingers." Other people on AllRecipes.com have used different fillings; I used the brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans version for all three cakes. Because pecans are awesome.
After shaping the cake and spending way too much time trying to keep the ends together, you're supposed to cut vent holes. That probably represents something European and/or Catholic. Or maybe the whole thing would explode it the oven if you didn't. (A special Jupiter Star Power prize for our first reader to explode a holiday themed pastry in the oven!)
Part of the king cake tradition is shoving a plastic baby inside. According to Wikipedia, this is a Southern US tradition (those losers in France and Spain use beans), and all your jerks who've found babies would owe me cake if I trusted you to make/obtain one.
Do not even consider putting the baby inside the cake before baking it.
Even if you're in a hurry after 4+ hours of preparing/baking, you still need to take the time to decorate your king cake. Which you can definitely rush because a properly decorated king cake looks like you were already drunk and had access to sprinkles. Or get some kids to do it. Kids love pouring sprinkles on things.
If I were smart, I would've remembered to shove the babies inside before covering the cakes with sticky stuff.
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