The Louisiana stoplight

I don't know why, but it never occurred to me to bake my own king cake while I was in Halifax. I've always missed Mardi Gras, with all of the parades and partying, but I really missed the king cakes. My parents were generous enough to ship me king cakes several times, but it's expensive, and well, not as fresh as it could be...don't get me wrong, it's better than nothing, but not as fresh as being in Louisiana.

So, this year I decided to bake my own using The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine by Chef John Folse. I'm not a huge fan of his, but the cookbook ("cookbook " doesn't seem to give it the significance this book deserves with its detailed histories and recipes and beautiful photography; not to mention it weighs about 13 lbs.) has fantastic recipes.

The pictures show some of the different steps...It really wasn't that difficult to make, but it was labor intensive. I even colored my own sugar, which was very easy to do. The only thing I didn't like was that the recipe said to put in 3 tbs. of cinnamon in the glaze. When I did this, it turned brown, so there isn't a white glaze on top, but a brown glaze...every king cake I know of has white glaze, and the picture in the cookbook had white glaze. Before I put the cinnamon in I kept re-reading the bit about the cinnamon; it definitely said to put 3 tbs.

When it was all said and done, this was the best king cake I've ever had. The dough was perfect; the sugar was perfect, and the glaze was - well, it should have used less cinnamon - delicious. We can't have total perfection...isn't that right Cheater McCheats in New England!

I think I'll be making a king cake every year. Who knows, next year I may shoot for a pecan praline filled cake....that's my favorite.

I call this one "Mountains of Purple Majesty"