Mardi Gras Fun

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Which means today is Fat Tuesday, tied to Mardi Gras, of course.

The kids are starting to be aware of what this all means because I baked a King Cake. It's a Mardi Gras thing, with a little baby in the middle of it. Why, you ask? Well, Don & I went to a fun party last year that had a King Cake, and I got the slice with the baby in it. Apparently this means you have good luck for the year and you have to make the cake for the party for following year. Lucky me, huh?

So, I baked my first King Cake, ever, under a bit of pressure. This thing is involved: there is time, yeast, dough rising, cream cheese filling, rolling of dough, sealing/folding the dough, etc - all of which I have never done. I like to cook, but really, I am no where near knowing what to do with a baking pastry-thing.

Anyway, we were not able to attend the party- Don was out of town and I had no babysitting sitting options. I made the cake and dropped it off. I was hopeful it tasted alright and it worked out well!

The kids were all so curious about the little plastic baby in the cake. Anna wanted to know who would feed it and put it to bed. Matteo wanted to know if it would melt in the cake, as the baby was a little plastic toy-type thing. And, my cute cooking buddy, Dominick, of course wanted to know if we could make our own King Cake.

I told this little story to our friends that were having the party, and Sandy promptly handed me another little baby, along with adorable Mardi Gras masks and beads when we dropped off the cake. Our kiddo's were thrilled!

Don has a work commitment tonight (Fat Tuesday), so we had our own family Mardi Gras party last night. The kids helped me make the King Cake, which the kids loved eating! I made jambalaya, which the kids did not eat, but loved the idea of wearing masks and talking about the celebration as a family. Who got the baby, you ask? Don got the baby - which made all the kids laugh and giggle. Of course everyone needed to hold the baby and look at it once it made its presence known. We talked about how if Daddy has good luck for the year, we all have good luck for the year.

Funny thing: It's 6:40 in the morning as I'm typing this (yes, I'm a morning person) and Anna just greeted me wearing her adorable Mardi Gras butterfly mask while carrying a few stuffed animals. May your day be filled with some Mardi Gras fun or just a whole bunch of chocolate or whatever it is you may be giving up for Lent!

Cool facts that I looked up before I made the cake because I was curious: Apparently the King Cake dates back to the 12th century and were made in a circular shape to portray the circular route used by the kings to get to the Christ Child, which was taken to confuse King Herod who was trying to follow the wise men so he could kill the Christ Child. In these early King Cakes a bean, pea, or coin was hidden inside the cake. The person who got the hidden piece was declared King for the day or was said to have good luck in the coming year. King Cakes are decorated in the traditional Mardi Gras colors; gold (for power), green (for faith) and purple (for justice).