Mardi Gras King Cake rich in taste and tradition

by Chris Owen on
It’s been called Portuguese Christmas Cake, Bolo Rei and a bunch of other names but Mardi Gras King Cake is the colorful bakery creation, rich in taste and tradition, that serves as a symbol of the pre-Lenten season of Mardi Gras.

The tradition predates Christianity and was taken from the Roman celebration called Lupercalia. Mardi Gras celebrates the period between the end of the Christmas Season and the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday) as a period of merriment and excess. Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, is the final day of this period of festivities since Lent will begin a time of fasting.

As the story goes, the King Cake came about in order to use up ingredients that would not be consumed during the Lenten period. Sweet, rich pastries with lots of eggs and butter ended up being called the King Cake. Similar to a brioche dough and traditionally eaten during Mardi Gras, three colors of sugar are used to represent each of the three kings or wise men of biblical fame. Green is for faith, yellow (or gold) for power and purple stands for justice.

Inside will be some sort of toy, trinket or miniature baby Jesus inside and whoever finds it left duty-bound to provide the next cake or host the next Mardi Gras party.

That’s the basics. From there, like Mardi Gras, pretty much anything goes as bakers have taken great liberties with the original formula.

“The filled king cake trend started in the 1970s,” Liz Williams, president of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans told CourierPostOnline “People wanted things that were sweeter and sweeter, and bakers wanted to be different. Before that king cakes looked the same and were pretty much the same.”

Enter everything from chocolate to most nuts, cream cheese and almond paste. Pastry chef Jean-Luc Albin makes a Bourbon Street King Cake with chocolate custard, bourbon and toasted pecans, General Foster King Cake with a banana’s Foster-type filling and a Woodlawn Plantation King Cake with praline cream and Southern Comfort.

“Every year I do something a little different, something new,” Albin says. “It makes things interesting.

Mardi Gras King Cake rich in taste and tradition, no matter what goes into it.

Related Stories

Flickr photos by syvwlch and Gruenemann

Daily gear deals: free iPod Touch battery case, $90 Android tablet and more

by Scott Carmichael on

Here are Gadling’s hottest daily gear deals for today, Tuesday March 8, 2011. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.

Today’s first deal is for a comfort grip silicone case for the iPod Touch. As an added bonus, this case holds two AA batteries which can charge your iPod when in the case. Price is free, shipping is $6. Click here for this deal.

Next up is a smart wall/car dual port USB charger. This charger features folding plugs for AC (wall) or DC (car) power. Two USB ports let you charge more than one device at the same time. On sale for $12.99, click here for this deal.

Today’s third deal is for an 8.9″ Android tablet. This is a pretty mediocre little tablet, with no market access. But at $89.99, you’ll get a device capable of media playback and more. Click here for this deal.

And finally in today’s lineup is a 2-pack of Kingston 4GB SDHC memory cards. On sale for $11.99, click here for this deal.

Virgin Blue flight attendant puts baby in overhead bin

by Meg Nesterov on

A Virgin Blue flight attendant has been fired after putting a 17-month-old baby in an overhead compartment as part of a peek-a-boo joke. Passenger Natalie Williamson was on a flight from Fiji to Sydney with her husband and son when the flight attendant put the baby into the overhead bin and locked it for 10 seconds.

“I stood up and there were people laughing and then I said ‘Get my son out of there now’,” she told Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun.

Virgin Blue admits that the incident happened but claims Williamson’s husband had been playing peek-a-boo with the overhead bin when the flight attendant joined in. The airline has offered apologies as well as three free flights, but the mother claims she and her child are too traumatized to redeem them, and her son still suffers from anxiety and withdrawal three months after the incident.

[Photo courtesy Flickr user David McKelvey]

Rescuers work to save “sacred” Vietnamese turtle

by Melanie Nayer on

How do you save a sacred Vietnamese turtle? Very, very carefully, according to dozens of veterinarian workers in Hanoi who are trying to capture a rare giant turtle in desperate need of medical attention from Vietnam‘s Hoan Kiem Lake.

Workers waded through the lake to try to save the giant freshwater turtle so it could be pulled to land and treated. The animal – one of only four Rafeteus swinhoei believed to be alive today – is one of the world’s most endangered turtles with roots back hundreds of years. In fact, some even believe the sacred turtle is the same mythical creature said to have helped a Vietnamese king fend off the Chinese nearly six centuries ago.The news of the turtle’s wrecked condition sent hundreds of Vietnamese into action, working and watching while rescuers tried to pull the turtle to safety. Photos detail open pink sores on its neck and legs and lesions on its shell, which stretches 6 feet long and 4 feet wide.

Some experts blame the sewage and trash-filled lake for the turtle’s condition, and locals have worked for days to removing chunks of debris from the lake and pumping in fresh water. Last week, a small island in the lake was expanded with sandbags to form a platform large enough for the turtle to rest, complete with a little pond.

According to Yahoo! news, many Vietnamese believe the turtle is the same one described in the legend of King Le Loi, who is said to have defeated Chinese invaders with a magic sword given to him by the gods. After the victory,a giant golden turtle is said to have risen to the surface and snatched the sword from the kid’s hands, then plunged back into the water to return the sword to its owners.

[via Yahoo!]

Abandoned Caracas skyscraper is home to 2,500 squatters

by Justin Delaney on

In downtown Caracas, thousands have found home in an unlikely structure. The “Tower of David,” a one time symbol for Venezuela‘s economic growth prospects, is an unfinished 45 story skyscraper filled with idle Venezuelans and enterprising small business start-ups. According to the New York Times, a housing shortage in Caracas has led many to make the most out of the housing opportunity provided by this massive abandoned structure.

A relic of the Venezuelan banking boom, the slum-scraper is one of the tallest buildings in Latin America and houses roughly 2500 squatters. The tenants have wired electricity, created makeshift shops, and installed DirecTV satellite dishes that cling precariously to the exterior of the re-purposed tower. Many residents have set up businesses, including a PlayStation home-brew arcade, a beauty salon, and a suspicious sounding dentistry operation.

The DIY housing solution is currently inhabited up to the 28th floor, though residents plan to push higher towards the incongruous Helipad that rests atop the tower. This video by the New York Times provides a candid glimpse into life within the dilapidated tower.