Mardi Gras king cake with a twist
When I moved to New Orleans, I discovered that this was a city that — at least in terms of food — was a world to itself.
Many of its foods had little in common with those of the South I grew up in. Nearly everything was new and exciting and exotic. Some things, like the sherry-rich turtle soup and the spillway crayfish, I loved. Others, like the alligator sausage, I could never quite get used to.
But the thing I loved best was the Mardi Gras king cake. The original puff pastry version of “la galette des rois” was made by the occasional “French” bakery and was a simple, yet sophisticated affair with a beautiful flaky dough powdered with sugar. And, of course, a ceramic “baby” baked into it.
But the modern day king cake is a sweet Louisiana extravaganza and comes in more than 60 different “coffeecake” like flavors, including King Creole pecan, apple, strawberry cream cheese, Bavarian cream and piña colada.
It is shaped like a great big baked doughnut and has a plastic baby stuck into the cake before it is decorated in purple (representing justice), green (representing faith) and gold (representing power) icing or sugar. The king cake party tradition dictates that the person who gets the baby in his or her slice must host the next king cake party during Mardi Gras season.
During Mardi Gras, I would have a king cake party almost every day, and over the course of a few years I tried almost every flavor made.
My favorite bakery boasted a “queen cake” made with Louisiana sweet potatoes. It was my favorite. And every year since moving away, I crave it.
It didn't take long for me to figure out that I could take all the rich flavors of my favorite “queen cake” and make a sweet potato bread pudding (also very popular in New Orleans). I use stale raisin bread to achieve the cinnamon coffeecake like flavor and texture of king cake, and baked garnet sweet potato purée to make the bread pudding custard rich and moist.
I also honor the revelry of Mardi Gras by topping it with whiskey hard sauce while it is still warm.
Whiskey hard sauce is one of my favorite secrets to dressing up almost any warm cake, pie or pudding. Contrary to what it sounds like, it's not actually a sauce. It's more like a spread, until you put it on a hot dessert and the butter and sugar and whiskey melt and become a heady “sauce” that is truly the icing on the cake.
Hide a “baby” in the bread pudding once it comes out of the oven and before you ice it with the hard sauce, then carry on the Mardi Gras tradition.
Ÿ Elizabeth Karmel is a grilling and Southern foods expert and executive chef at Hill Country Barbecue Market restaurants in New York and Washington, as well as Hill Country Chicken in New York. She is the author of three cookbooks, including “Soaked, Slathered and Seasoned.”