What's Mardi Gras without King Cake, Red Beans and Rice

So how do you make a King Cake? Last week I mentioned that Mardi Gras Day is Feb. 28, and the weeks leading up to it are full of parades and partying in New Orleans and other Southern cities.

I also mentioned the King Cake tradition. A toy baby doll is hidden in the cake. The person who finds the baby in their piece of cake gets good luck and has to make the next King Cake to share.

That prompted questions from readers about King cakes. They're not your typical Betty Crocker 9-by-13-inch sheet cake. A King Cake uses yeast as leavening, and it is rolled into a long tube shape, then twisted into a circle or oval. It's decorated with sugars in Mardi Gras colors — purple, representing justice, green for faith and gold for power.

From what I've seen, King Cake recipes don't normally use jalapeno sauce. That's an option suggested by the McIlhenny Co., makers of Tabasco sauce, which also shared a recipe for the traditional red beans and rice.

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MARDI GRAS KING CAKE

Cake:

2 packages active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water (115 to 120 degrees)

2 teaspoons granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup

4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1/2 cup warm milk

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

5 egg yolks

2 tablespoons Tabasco green jalapeno sauce (optional)

1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 miniature plastic baby doll

Topping:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon Tabasco green jalapeno sauce (optional)

Purple, gold and green coarse sugars

Combine yeast with warm water and 2 teaspoons of the granulated sugar in a small cup. Let stand 10 minutes or until yeast bubbles.