King Cake

Happy Mardi Gras! Being from New Orleans, this is one of my favorite times of year, though it's always a little sad when I don't get to go home for it. To make up for it though, I always bake a couple king cakes throughout the season. The Mardi Gras season officially starts on Epiphany, which is January 6, and lasts until the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. (In case you don't know, Ash Wednseday is always 46 days before Easter, which traditionally falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. It's complicated, I know.) Depending on when that is, Mardi Gras day can fall anywhere from February 3 to March 9, giving me anywhere from just under a month to just over 2 months to bake king cakes to my heart's content.

At this point you might be asking yourself, "What is a king cake anyway?" Well, dear reader, a king cake is traditionally served during the Mardi Gras season--in case you hadn't figured that much out already. It's not really a cake per se; it's actually much more bread-like. Flavorwise, it's a bit like a giant cinnamon roll, though don't let anyone fool you into thinking that it is just a giant cinnamon roll because it's not. The differences are subtle, yes, but it's still not a cinnamon roll. A plastic baby is also placed inside the cake, and finding it in your piece is good luck (and symbolizes the wise men finding baby Jesus in the manger). Typically when we would have Mardi Gras parties in school and such, whoever finds the baby also brings in the next king cake, in which case you may not feel it's so luck after all. Also, take it from the voice of experience here, when you go to cut the cake, try to remember where you put the baby so that you don't cut it in half. Nobody likes finding half a baby in their cake.

Chocolate-Marshmallow Whoopie Pies

What exactly is a whoopie pie? Is it a cake? Is it a cookie? Does it really matter? It's delicious, whatever you consider it. I used to make these all the time when I worked at the coffee shop, and the older customers especially would snatch them up, saying that they tasted like childhood. I think that's a pretty apt description no matter who you are. These whoopie pies have a simple, classic taste that almost has the flavor of a homemade Oreo, though the texture is quite different.

Halloween Buttercream Fudge

Before I get to the recipe, I just want to apologize for the lack of updates in the past couple weeks. Justin and I were kind of busy for a bit there. Our first wedding anniversary was also earlier this month, and so we were out and about some, including a day trip to Williamsburg to go ziplining. (It was great fun, by the way--sometimes terrifying, but great fun.) Then I had a few recipes that I tried out and intended to post. However, they just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I didn't want to post anything that I thought was subpar. A lot of things combined to cause my lack of posts. Either way, I'm back now, and hopefully I should be back to posting with semi-regularity.

My first post back is this lovely, simple fudge. It tastes like buttercream frosting, and just for Halloween, I made it in layers that look like candy corn. I've made fudge from scratch before, and I even have a specific pot that I refer to as my fudge pot. It was given to me by my mom, and it's the only pot she ever used to make fudge. (It's a Club aluminium pot with a super thick bottom that makes it a lot more difficult to accidentally burn whatever anything delicate that you make in it.) Still, fudge can be somewhat of a hassle to make from scratch. You have to make sure it gets to the exact right temperature, or it won't set properly. It can't be too humid out, or it won't set properly. You can't look at it wrong, or it won't set properly. You get the idea. This fudge involves none of that. Honestly, the most difficult and time-consuming part of this process was cutting it into triangles. This is seriously the easiest dessert you will ever make. You have no excuse not to make a batch or three.