A Royal Mess

In the last blog, I had just put the dough for the king cake in the fridge for sit overnight. All I could think about yesterday was if the cake was going to turn out right. Is the dough to sticky? Did I let it rise enough? Did I follow instructions correctly? That kind of stuff. I am telling you guys, and I have told you before, I DO NOT BAKE!!

When I got home I took the dough out. I had to pry it out of the bowl and onto my floured counter top. I formed it into a ball and then rolled it out with my rolling pin. So far, so good.

Then I mixed the filling together. Brown Sugar, roasted pecans, cinnamon, allspice, salt and Steen's Pure Cane Syrup (which smells odd). I spooned it onto the dough and then I folded it width wise. Yes, I said "width." Thanks to my loving husband, he corrected me. I had to unfold it and spread the filling all over again. Not so good.

Finally I folded it length wise and rolled it up. Shaped it into a circle. Brushed it with an egg wash and popped it into the oven for 30 mins.

The glaze was no problem what so ever! Powdered sugar, lemon juice and water.

The house was smelling wonderful and cinnamoney, but in my mind I knew that this was NOT going to turn out the way I wanted it to. And I was right! I took it out of the oven and stared at the crusty bread looking, oozy mess of a king cake. My heart sank a little at the sight of it. It really did smell good though.

Figuring that if I slapped some glaze and sprinkles on it, at least it would look better. There are no amount of sprinkles to save this cake! It helped a little, but not enough. I made my husband try it first since he was full of encouraging words like "it looks like a donut" and "you folded it wrong." Surprisingly he liked it. He wasn't too crazy about the lemon glaze, but at least the cake and filling tasted good. Then the real judge tried it. If the 4 year old likes it then I guess it's not that bad. He said it was, in his words, "really, really, super good!" I almost started to cry.

I guess you can't win them all. At least I tried and I didn't fail completely. I will not be baking again for a VERY long time. Good luck if you are planning on making a king cake at home. I'm sure you will do far better than I did.

Next up in the Southern Foodette world is....Moon Pie Bienville (no baking required)!