Mardi Gras recipe: How to make Edgar's king cake (2024)

Edgar's Bakery in Birmingham started making Mardi Gras king cakes to satisfy the demands of New Orleans and Louisiana residents who moved to the Magic City following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

And to make sure the Edgar's cooks got it just right, their Louisiana friends offered their advice.

"We have some friends from Louisiana that live here (now), and they would give us some pointers about what we could do better, or different, to really make them exceptional," Dottie Smith, who co-owns Edgar's Bakery with her husband, Terry Smith, told AL.com.

The Smiths’ friends obviously know what they’re talking about, because about two weeks ago, USA Today included the Edgar’s Bakery king cake among three others from New Orleans and two more from elsewhere in Louisiana on its list of the best Mardi Gras king cakes for 2016.

"We were thrilled," Smith said. "It kind of reinforces our philosophy that you just continue, day in and day out, to do your best and try to make great product. And if you continue to make a great product, word will get around.

"You're only as good as the last thing you bake is what we say around here."

Edgar's serves four types of king cakes - a traditional cake with no filling, a cream cheese cake, a strawberry cream cheese cake and a pecan praline cake. The cream cheese king cake is their best seller, Smith said.

The cakes are available through Fat Tuesday on Feb. 9 at any on the five Edgar's Bakery locations in Birmingham or the one in Tuscaloosa. They are also available online and for shipping at www.edgarsbakery.com.

And if you're ambitious enough to try to make one of your own at home, Smith is gracious enough to share her recipe, along with a how-to video produced by her nephew Nick Scott

Here is the recipe:

Praline Filling

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 11/2 cups light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey (local honey if possible)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped pecan pieces

Directions:

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

Whisk in the brown sugar and cook over low heat, stirring to combine. It may look separated, but that's OK. Do not boil or overheat. Filling is ready for the next step when the sugar begins sticking to the side of the pot.

Remove pot from heat and whisk in other ingredients.

Set aside covered until dough is ready.

King Cake Dough

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup cake flour (King Arthur brand recommended)
• 1 cup bread flour (King Arthur brand recommended)
• 1/8 cup powdered milk
• 5/8 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

Combine all ingredients into a mixing bowl.

Mix ingredients on low speed for 2 minutes, then continue to mix the ingredients on medium speed for 2 more minutes.

Prepare table with light dusting of flour. Pull dough from mixer and roll out on table to about 1/2-inch thickness. Spread additional warmed butter over the top of the dough just to cover. Fold dough over twice (once to the left or right, and once toward or away from you).

Cover dough and let dough rest in refrigerator overnight.

Unwrap dough and roll out onto flour-dusted table, about 1/2 inch in thickness. Try to roll out in a rectangular shape.

Spread slightly warmed praline filling over the top as close to the edge as possible.

Fold over the dough once, so that the filling is enclosed in the dough.

With a pizza cutter, cut the dough towards you in 1- to 11/2-inch strips, only pressing lightly so filling will stay inside the dough fold.

Once all dough is cut, braid the dough together. After braided, connect the two ends of the braid together.

Put the unbaked king cake on a baking pan covered with parchment paper and bake at 300 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

King Cake Icing

Ingredients:

• 11/4-lb. powdered sugar
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
• Purple, green and gold food coloring

Directions:

Mix first four ingredients until well blended and heat. Divide into thirds to make three different colors. Make the colors by adding food coloring until the color is correct.

Drizzle icing over the king cake in your own creative way.

For extra sparkle, added colored sanding sugar in the matching color of the icing.

Decorate with Mardi Gras beads and place a miniature plastic baby figurine under a slice of the cake.

Depending on which tradition you follow, the person who receives that slice will be blessed with luck and prosperity, will be the designated "king" or "queen" for the day, will be responsible for providing the next year's king cake, and/or will be in charge of hosting the next Mardi Gras party.

For a quick tutorial, watch the how-to video: