Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras are great holidays in February for cooking with your kids! Show your love for your children by committing to involve them in cooking on a regular basis! Many of us are cutting back and not eating out as often, so 2009 will be the year for quality family time! Healthy eating habits begin by kids working in the kitchen with their parents. Children seek role models and you are it!
Mardi Gras is a less familiar holiday to kids, which makes for great learning! King Cake is a Madi Gras tradition and making an easier version is a tasty project that has interesting history! Below I have included a King Cake video link and history information that will help you plan the festivities! Plan a Madi Gras cooking party with a few moms so everyone can pitch in and have some fun!
King Cake Video (to begin video, click on the pic of king cake to the right or search site for "traditional king cake video")
Video from www.history.com
King Cake History
www.foodnetwork.com
No Mardi Gras party is complete without King Cake — the colorful braided brioche that satisfies the sweet tooth. But even more important is what's hidden in the dough, because whoever gets a slice with a miniature plastic baby inside must supply the next King Cake — among other duties.
"I've heard whoever gets the baby has to do the dishes, or people put money into a pool and whoever gets the baby wins the pot," says David Haydel, owner of Haydel's Bakery in New Orleans, which produces 60,000 King Cakes each year for Mardi Gras revelers around the world. "Traditionally it's used to select the king and queen of the Mardi Gras krewe." Krewes are clubs that host Mardi Gras balls and parade elaborate floats down New Orleans streets.
If a man finds the prize in the King Cake, he's named king of the krewe's ball and chooses his queen. If a woman finds it, it's lady's choice. Typically, the queen provides the place for the next party, and the king provides the food. This tradition is said to have begun with the 1870 ball of the Twelfth Night Revelers in New Orleans, when one gold and several silver beans were hidden in King Cakes to determine the queen of the ball and her maids-in-waiting.
Over the years, beans have been replaced by gold coins, jewelry and even nuts. Because they were easy to accidentally swallow, beans fell out of favor, and "people would just eat the pecans," explains Haydel, so bakers turned to miniature plastic babies.
In keeping with the holiday, the miniature plastic babies are a symbol for the baby Jesus. The Mardi Gras season kicks off with Epiphany, the commemoration of the night the Three Kings brought gifts to the baby Jesus. The celebration continues through Fat Tuesday and ends with Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten fast.
Most locals buy ready-made cakes, though the recipe is simply flour, eggs, butter, yeast and milk or water. The dough can be lightly spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and citrus zest, or filled with cream cheese and fruit. Then it's braided into an oval ring to represent a crown and decorated with fondant icing, colored sugar and candies in the Mardi Gras colors: gold for power, green for faith and purple for justice.
Once reserved for Fridays during Mardi Gras, King Cake parties now take place every day during the height of the celebratory period.
King Cake Made Easy!
The goal of this project is to teach your kids the history behind the king cake while having fun in the kitchen. No need to spend several hour making the real thing!
Gather ingredients and cooking supplies for vanilla cake, bundt cake or cupcakes. Time saver advice is to use box mix and white frosting from store. Angel food cake would work well too! There are low fat and gluten free options out there!
You will need purple, yellow and green food coloring for frosting to celebrate the colors of Mardi Gras.
Gather kids around the table or kitchen counter.
Assemble cake mix and involve the kids in this process or be sure they watch as you add the different ingredients.
After cake goes into oven, divide frosting into separate bowls and have kids add the food coloring. This is when you can talk about what the colors represent - purple for justice, gold for power and green for faith.
The Mardis Gras beads, coins and plastic babies (described above) can be purchased online or at a party supply store.
Enjoy and email me with any question! mymealmaven@aol.com
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