Happy Mardi Gras!

I thought I'd make some cupcakes to celebrate Mardi Gras. More specifically, I made King Cupcakes-- a recipe from the cupcake calender I recently received from my best buddy Tia. The recipe originated from the book 500 Cupcakes. To read more about Mardi Gras, click HERE to find last year's blog post.
I used 2 brand new ingredients that I'd never used while baking: sweet butter & self rising flour.

Here is Pazely, waiting to lick the batter from the beaters. I STILL enjoy doing this!

Here are sugars in the traditional colors of Mardi Gras.

The frosting, I admit, was a bit tart. Simply lemon juice & powdered sugar. **insert puckered lip face** Not my favorite. I added LOTS of vanilla & a bit of butter to calm down the lemon.

The cupcakes were quite interesting. Not too sweet. Almost cornbread-ish.

I hid a tiny plastic baby inside one of the cupcakes, as is tradition in the King Cakes.

The girls & I delivered the King Cupcakes to family & friends this afternoon. They reminded me of lemon muffins. And though they may not have TASTED as sugary & sweet as a king cake, they looked SUPER cute. And that's the most important thing, right?

Click HERE for a traditional New Orleans King Cake recipe.

Have a happy Fat Tuesday!

Happy Birthday Pops!

Ok, here's the big surprise for my dad's birthday. It arrived yesterday & the girls are poking & gawking at it in the photo...

It's a king cake! I decided to do something fun for dessert for his party tonight! I ordered it from New Orleans & I've left it as a surprise for my entire fam (except for mom & grandmother). My sis is pretty much from Louisiana & it'll be a sentimental thing for her as well since she relocated here after Hurrican Katrina & a piece of her will always be there.

I left the cake in the bag to keep it fresh, but I'll get better pictures tonight when we're all munching on it! I think it is a faux pas to eat a king cake after Mardi Gras (Feb 5th this year!), but I guess I'm willing to suffer the humiliation.

My dad is a giant goofball & I love him so much! Happy Birthday dad!

P.S. I got my button machine today!!!!!

Happy Mardi Gras Day!

I thought I would give a hearty Mardi Gras shout out as today ends the weeks of hooplah & celebration leading to this final day: Mardi Gras Day. Of course in the little Northwestern city I live in, Mardi Gras is not celebrated. (Bummer.)

A lot of my childhood was spent growing up outside of New Orleans, Louisiana & it is such a HUGE thing down there to celebrate with Carnival, large parades, & other festivities. I have so many fun memories of Mardi Gras as a kid. I remember going with my neighbor friends & all our families to local parades--empty pillowcases in hand to catch all the beads, cups, doubloons & other loot. "Throw me somethin' mister!", we'd shout.

On one Mardi Gras (in 1985 or 1986?), my family went to the famous Zulu Parade--the oldest African-American parade. The pride & prize of this parade was to catch one of their golden coconuts. (This tradition of throwing coconuts began its carnival adventures in 1910!) It was a coconut painted gold with other glittery designs. Well, I was sittin' on my dad's shoulders & one of the masked & costumed men riding in the large decorated floats reached down & handed me one!! I felt like a kid in a fancy golden coconut store! I kept the coconut for a very long time. I have no idea where it ended up, but I'm thinkin' maybe mom had something to do with its disappearance. Or maybe my brother & I tried to crack it open & eat it?

One time I got seperated from my parents in the large crowds of people at a parade. It was JAM packed with loads of bodies. I was a little 10 year old white girl lost in a black neighborhood & my mom was yelling, "NIKKI! NIKKI!" Everyone around knew exactly who this little white girl belonged to---that even whiter lady. HAHA!

And OH how I miss king cakes! I love the history of it all--even the king cake, which had its beginning with the first French settlers. It is basically a twisted cinnamon bread-or coffee cake-decorated with icing & purple, yellow & green sprinkles. A little plastic baby is hidden inside & if you get the piece of cake with the baby, you are declared the "king" or "queen" for the day. It also means you have to bring the next king cake or throw the next party. Every year our school classes would always have king cakes & I got the baby on more than one occasion.

OK, sorry for the history lesson. I just got caught up remembering it all! I'll have to see if mom has any family photos of these celebrations?....

Picture credits:

Zulu parade: http://www.asergeev.com/pictures/archives/compress/2006/508/05.htm

Zulu coconut: http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/mardigras/mgtraditions.html

King cake: http://tinyurl.com/2lzkb3