Throw me some beads mister!
(Elise laughing)
We are making a King Cake.
It's like a cross between a coffee cake and a French pastry.
To get started I've got 16 ounces of sour cream.
We're gonna melt down some sour cream
with a half stick of butter, some sugar and some salt.
Done.
So we're gonna melt this all together
and then we will work on our yeast.
Smart Cookie Fact of the Day.
What's Mardi Gras?
Good question!
I have an answer for you.
Mardi Gras comes from the French tradition of Carnival.
But the word Mardi Gras itself
actually just means Fat Tuesday
which refers to the last day of Carnival season
which is the day when you're supposed to
overindulge in everything
because the next day is Ash Wednesday
which is the beginning of the Lenten season
in the Catholic Church.
Great.
So now our butter is fully melted,
our sour cream is nice and liquidy.
And now we're gonna put this to the side
and let it cool off again for about 15 minutes.
If we were to combine this with our yeast now
it would be too hot and the yeast would die.
And we don't wanna be a murderer do we?
No.
You need a 1/2 cup of warm water.
The temperature is actually really important.
Too hot, the yeast will die.
Too cold, nothing will happen.
So I've got two 1/4th of an ounce cups of yeast.
So it's just like the packs that you get.
And I've got two of those.
And sugar.
So while our sour cream mixture is cooling off
we're gonna leave this to bloom for a little while.
It's already smelling yeasty.
This has cooled off to a reasonable temperature.
And as you'll notice
this yeast is like really doin' a thing right now.
Like you can even tell there's like
a little bit of like a differentiation
between the like risen yeast
and the water content that's on the bottom.
This is like really ready to go.
We're gonna add this all to our handy dandy standing mixer.
Isn't that lovely?
Two cups of bread flour.
We're gonna pour our sour cream mix into our standing mixer.
Mmm what a lovely noise that makes.
Gross.
Now we're gonna add our yeast mixture, two eggs.
Those can go right in there.
I'm just gonna start at a low speed.
Now we're gonna add, slowly add
another four cups of bread flour.
So we started with two, we got four.
You can do the math.
(bell sounding) Six.
Oh boy.
We only lost about a couple tablespoons, it's fine.
Aww yeah.
It's gonna be really sticky
but that's exactly what you're lookin' for
right now at this stage.
So I've got 3/4 of a cup of flour in here, bread flour.
Always bread flour on this recipe.
And I'm gonna dust with about 1/4 cup on the surface.
Aww yes.
♪ Super sticky it's a super sticky dough ♪
If your dough is still sticking to the surface
that means that you haven't kneaded in enough flour yet.
But it should be smooth on top.
What's the rule?
It should feel like a baby's butt.
Baby's butt.
So now that you've got your beautiful dough
you're gonna put it in a bowl.
What's up Pam?
My favorite Pam.
Aunt Pamela how's it goin'?
Put that in there.
Cling wrap.
Oh boy that's a noise.
Sorry audio team.
And then this is gonna go away to rise
for 45 minutes to an hour.
Whoo!
Meanwhile while that's happening
you can go ahead and make this praline cream cheese filling.
So we're gonna use two bricks of cream cheese,
brown sugar, white sugar,
vanillar
and cinnamon.
We're just gonna give this a go.
You wanna make sure that your cream cheese
is softened at room temperature.
Cold, it'll make it more difficult to get smooth.
Great.
That didn't take so long.
Okay so I'm gonna scrape down the sides.
Real quick.
Then we're gonna crack an egg into the filling.
Is that a nice sound effect in there?
So now we're Just gonna beat one egg into the filling.
Voila!
All you have to do at this point is put this to the side
and wait for your dough to finish proofing.
Your dough has proofed for 45 minutes to an hour.
It has
doubled in size.
This is also my favorite,
one of my favorite parts of this.
You get to punch the dough down.
So I'm gonna give it a little sprinkle
on the top of the surface.
And then you literally take a fist
and punch the air, some of the air
out of this.
Get some frustration out, okay.
Ha, ha!
I'm gonna do a little bit of flour on the surface.
We're gonna cut this little guy in half
because this makes two King Cakes.
With one half of this you're gonna put it back in your bowl,
set it to the side.
And you wanna make sure that you cover it
because you wanna try to keep it
from being exposed to too much air
'cause it will form a skin on top which is gross.
Alright, I'm just gonna work on rolling this guy out.
There we go.
Voila!
So now you've got a nice, big rectangle of dough.
Bring back that lovely filling that you made.
So we're just gonna take half of our filling,
plop it down there.
And you're just gonna spread this into an even layer.
It's kinda similar to a cinnamon roll.
Because this is praline that means we gotta have pecans.
So I'm gonna sprinkle about a 1/2 cup.
And then you'll use the other half for the other half.
Just like with a cinnamon roll
now you're gonna roll up from the long side.
And I do what I like to call typewriter fingers.
And you just wanna try to keep the roll as even as possible.
♪ Rollin' it up it's a roll 'em up ♪
You're just gonna pull the edges together
and try to crimp them together
because you're gonna wanna put this guy seam side down
just like that.
You're just gonna use a little bit of water
to help moisten the ends of this
'cause it's covered in flour, ya know?
And you can tell I'm kinda pulling sides
of this pastry dough now that it's wet
and sticking it to the other side.
Alright so now it's round.
So now you're gonna take your King Cake
and you're gonna put it on a sheet tray
that you have already got some parchment paper on.
Cover 'em in Saran wrap or cling wrap or whatever you've got
and he's gonna go back and proof for 45 minutes to an hour.
See ya later. (xylophone sounding)
We're back.
Look at that guy.
He's doubled in size and he's all fluffy.
Both of your cakes will bake for 25 minutes at 350.
And then they're gonna cool for an hour and a half
before you can do the last step which is decorating.
(xylophone sounding) Ta-da!
So now that this King Cake
has cooled for an hour and a half
we are ready to decorate.
Okay.
So first things first.
We're gonna make a really simple milk glaze.
So I've got some powdered sugar
in this beautiful milk glass bowl right here.
We're gonna add a little bit of butter.
'Cause everything's better with butter.
Some vanilla extract.
And we're gonna add some milk.
We're just gonna give it a little stir.
That's kinda what you're lookin' for right?
Before we frost this guy
we have a very, very important step.
You must place
a tiny, tiny,
tiny Baby Jesus
inside of your cake.
Look how tiny he is, he's so tiny.
Okay why do we do this.
Okay this tradition is because this cake
is usually served on the Epiphany
which in the Catholic Church
is the day that the Wise Men came to the manger
and found this tiny Baby Jesus asleep in a manger and so.
We're gonna hide the Baby Jesus inside of the cake.
And the tradition is that whoever finds Baby Jesus
becomes the king for the day
but also has to host the celebration for the next year.
I'm gonna poke a little hole in the bottom of this cake.
Baby Jesus bye bye.
So now he's inside of there.
We're just gonna pour slowly, slowly.
Drizzle our frosting.
(Elise laughing)
I'm gonna spread it out, it's gonna be fine.
This doesn't have to be perfect
because we're gonna add sprinkles.
Look at that, frosted.
The official colors of Mardi Gras are
purple, green and gold.
Do you know that they have meanings?
They do!
Purple is for justice.
So we're gonna do this in bands across.
Green is for faith.
And gold is for power.
Sprinkles everywhere on the floor.
I'm literally, there are so many sprinkles
on the floor right now.
Sorry.
Ta-da.
It's a King Cake!
Look at that!
I think it's pretty and I know it's gonna taste good.
Now comes the true test, the taste test for this.
I like purple.
Oh yeah.
Look at that!
It's like a cinnamon roll.
You can kinda see the swirl in there.
Now the question is did I get the baby?
Aww, I think it did get the baby.
Aww, there he is.
Look at that tiny Baby Jesus
it's sittin' in the middle of the cake.
Can you see him?
Well I guess that means that I'm
making this again next year 'cause there he is.
Hi tiny Baby Jesus.
Mm mm mm mm.
That is so good.
I am totally ready to celebrate Mardi Gras.
We hope that you are too.
And we hope you'll make this cake to do that.
If you do make sure you like, subscribe,
comment, share, all of those things.
And let us know how it goes.
Happy Mardi Gras everybody!
Doo doo doo!
Look at my festive hat.
I'm sorry Baby Jesus.
Where did you go?
He's under the counter.