It's Fat Tuesday - Have a cupcake

Happy Mardi Gras! I may not be in New Orleans, but I am all about a good party. When I mentioned to my husband that I wanted to do a Mardi Gras themed cupcake he immediately said I had to make a King Cake cupcake. I did some research and found that a traditional King Cake is more pastry, than cake. Luckily, he has experienced a real King Cake while in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, so he was able to guide me in the necessary flavors.

This cupcake was prepared very similarly to a cinnamon roll. The dough came together like a cinnamon roll, but the additional flavors of nutmeg and lemon gave it a crazy twist....THEN instead of being topped with a normal cream cheese frosting, it is used as filling. Umm...YUM!

The finished product was topped with a basic powdered sugar glaze, then covered in the traditional Mardi Gras colors: Purple, representing Justice, Green, representing Faith & Gold, representing Power.

In New Orleans, many King Cakes are baked with a small trinket inside. This trinket is usually a small plastic baby, to represent Baby Jesus. The person who finds the baby in their piece is granted various privileges, or obligations for next year's party. Since the baby was not much smaller than the cupcake, I decided to not bake him inside.....as you can see, he's hanging out under a wine glass, surrounded by beads.

This was a more complicated cupcake, due to the usage of yeast (which always scares me) but it was all worth the extra effort.

Enjoy your Fat Tuesday, everyone. With the help of these cupcakes, I know I will!


KING cupCAKE

The Recipe
adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride

For the dough
1 c water at 115 degrees
1/4 c sugar, divided
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) dry active yeast
1 egg
1 egg yolk
4 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp nutmeg
3 1/4 c flour, divided + extra for dusting work surface
1 tsp kosher salt
oil, for coating bowl

For Filling
1 8oz pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 c + 2 tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 rounded tsp cinnamon
Raisins (optional)
2 tbsp melted butter

For glaze
1 c confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp water
Decorating sugar - Purple, Green, & Yellow
Plastic baby (optional)

Pour 1 tbsp sugar and water into mixer bowl. Sprinkle yeast over top aand let stand for 10 minutes. If yeast gets puffy, you may continue. If your yeast does nothing, it may be dead and you may want to get some more. While your yeast is activating, lightly oil a large bowl and prep your muffin trays with cupcake liners.
Attach dough hook to mixer. Add melted butter, egg, egg yolk, remaining sugar, nutmeg, lemon zest, 3 c flour, and salt to bowl. Turn mixer on to low. Add only enough extra flour to bowl to allow dough to pull away from bowl, but still stay stuck to bottom. (I used almost the whole 1/4 cup) Your dough should be slightly sticky to the touch. Dump into oiled bowl. Cover and place in warm, dry place. Allow to double in size. It took my dough about an hour to double. While dough rises, prep your filling.

Put all filling ingredients, except for melted butter, in mixer bowl. Mix for 1-2 minutes, or until very smooth.

Dump dough onto lightly floured surface and kneed a few times. Starting from the center, push dough outwards, then stretch into an 18" x 12" rectangle. Brush melted butter all over flattened dough, sparing 1" at top. Leave that dry. Spread filling all over dough, except for that 1" at the top. If you want, sprinkle raisins across dough.

Starting with the long side of the dough, closest to you, roll upwards, jellyroll style, and pinch last inch of dough into roll. Place seam down on counter. Lightly tug on roll, in order to ensure entire thing is fairly even in diameter. Using a serrated knife, cut off ends, then begin to cut roll into 3/4" - 1" pieces. Do not make them any larger. If they are bigger than this, they will overflow your muffin pan. Transfer rounds into prepared cupcake pan and allow to rest while oven finishes preheating.

Bake for approximately 20 min, or until tops are a light gold brown. Do not overbake! They will be hard little King Cake rocks if you bake them too long. Remove pans from oven, and allow to cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks, and allow to cool completely.

To make your glaze, dump all ingredients into a small bowl and whisk until smooth. You want it to be a bit runny, so it will run down the tops of the cakes (and look pretty.) Spoon glaze over completely cooled cakes, then sprinkle all 3 colors on each cake.

Try to eat these the same day, or even the next day. If you let them sit to long, they won't be as pretty. Enjoy!