King Cake for Mardi Gras!

Yesterday, we were invited over to our friends Kristen and Jim's house for a King Cake taste testing. We had never heard of King Cake before last year's Mardi Gras season, when we were turned on to it via Kristen and Jim (who happen to be from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and grew up both celebrating Mardi Gras and eating this fabulous treat!). Here's a description:

This sweet, cinnamon bread-like dough is shaped into a big circle, cooked and topped with icing featuring the colors of Mardi Gras, purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power. A plastic baby, representing the Christ child, is hidden inside. Whoever gets the baby, according to tradition, has to provide the next king cake.

Anyway- Eric had to go on his own to sample the cakes, since we weren't sure that Jackson was quite up to celebrating Mardi Gras yesterday afternoon. We didn't miss out, though; Eric brought home two delicious pieces of King Cake for us, both from cakes homemade by Kristen and her mom (who was visiting from Louisiana). One type was made with dough from a bread machine, and the second from an easy crescent roll recipe. Both were fantastic, but the easy crescent roll recipe is right up my alley, because it's well... easy! Here's the recipe for the easy King Cake and Mardi Gras icing (it's from a best selling Louisiana cook book author named Holly Clegg):

King Cake and Icing recipes

I was so inspired that I bought a beautiful King Cake of my own (no time for even more food prep this week...no matter how easy the recipe!) from La Farm, our local French bakery, for my Mardi Gras themed Bunco game tomorrow- complete with Mardi Gras beads for decoration. Snazzy and indulgent= perfect for Mardi Gras. Can't wait to try it!