Mardi Gras Cake Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet.
• Open the cans of sweet roll dough and unroll the dough from each can into 3 strands. Working on a clean surface, place 3 dough strands side by side and gather them together to make one large strand. Fold this in half, and roll slightly to make a fat log. Repeat steps with the remaining dough. Place each log on the prepared baking sheet and shape to make a ring, overlapping the ends and pinching them together to make a complete circle. Pat the dough into shape as necessary to make the ring even in size all the way around. Cover loosely with foil.
• Bake in preheated oven until firm to the touch and golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. Check often for doneness so the ring doesn't overbake. Place on a wire rack and cool completely.
• Place the cake ring on a serving plate. Cut a slit along the inside of the ring and insert a small plastic baby, pushing it far enough into the cake to be hidden from view.
• Divide the frosting evenly between 4 bowls. Stir 1 tablespoon of milk into each bowl to thin the frosting. Use the frosting in one bowl to drizzle over the cooled cake. To the remaining three bowls of frosting, stir yellow food coloring into one and green into another. Stir the red and blue food colorings together with the frosting in a third bowl to make purple frosting. Drizzle the cake with yellow, green, and purple frostings in any desired pattern. Dust the cake with multi-colored sprinkles and decorate with beads, additional plastic babies, curly ribbon, and other festive trinkets.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, shortening, sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups flour. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky). , Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. , Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Roll one portion into a 16-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Spread almond filling to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet; pinch ends together to form a ring. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. , Preheat oven to 375°. Bake until golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. For glaze, combine confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough water to achieve desired consistency. Spread over cooled cakes. Sprinkle with colored sugars.

Steps:

• Scald milk, remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup of butter. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water with 1 tablespoon of the white sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
• When yeast mixture is bubbling, add the cooled milk mixture. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the remaining white sugar, salt and nutmeg. Beat the flour into the milk/egg mixture 1 cup at a time. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.
• Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. When risen, punch down and divide dough in half.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
• To Make Filling: Combine the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, chopped pecans, 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup raisins. Pour 1/2 cup melted butter over the cinnamon mixture and mix until crumbly.
• Roll dough halves out into large rectangles (approximately 10x16 inches or so). Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough and roll up each half tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at the wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form 2 oval shaped rings. Place each ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1 inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Push the doll into the bottom of the cake. Frost while warm with the confectioners' sugar blended with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water.

Steps:

• Pour the warm water into a small shallow bowl and sprinkle yeast and 2 teaspoons sugar into it. Allow the yeast and sugar to rest for 3 minutes and then mix thoroughly. Set bowl in a warm place for 10 minutes or until yeast bubbles up and mixture almost doubles in volume.
• Combine 3 1/2 cups flour, remaining sugar, nutmeg, mace and salt and sift into a large mixing bowl. Stir in lemon zest. Separate center of mixture to form a hole and pour in yeast mixture and milk. Add egg yolks and using a wooden spoon slowly combine dry ingredients into the yeast mixture. When mixture is smooth, beat in 8 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat 2 minutes or until dough can be formed into a soft ball. Place ball of dough on a lightly floured surface and knead like bread. During the kneading, add 1 cup more of flour sprinkled over dough. When dough is no longer sticky, knead 10 minutes more until shiny and elastic. Using a pastry brush, coat the inside of a large bowl with 1 tablespoon softened butter. Place dough ball in the bowl and rotate until entire surface is buttered. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a draft-free space for 1 1/2 hours or until dough doubles in size.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and place on lightly floured surface. Punch the dough down. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top. Pat and shape dough into a cylinder. Twist dough to form a curled cylinder and loop cylinder into buttered baking sheet. Pinch the ends together to complete the circle. Cover the dough with a towel and set in draft-free space for 45 minutes until dough doubles in size. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Brush top and sides of the cake with egg wash and bake on middle rack of oven for 25 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Place cake on a wire rack to cool. If desired at this time hide the plastic baby in the cake.
• Combine sugar, lemon juice and 3 tablespoons water until smooth. If icing is too thick add more water. Spread icing over cake. Immediately sprinkle colored sugars in rows consisting of 2 rows each of green, purple and yellow.