---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02
 
      Title: King Cake
 Categories: Cajun, Cakes
      Yield: 2 Servings
 
           Dough of your choice for
           - 1 large coffee cake
           - (approximate proportions:
      2 oz Fresh compressed yeast -OR-
      4 pk Active dry yeast
      4 c  Flour; up to 5 c
      1 c  Scalded milk; lukewarm
    3/4 c  Sugar
      1 ts Salt
      5    Eggs
      1 ts Vanilla extract
    3/4 c  Salted butter -- for recipe
      1    Dried bean or tiny (3/4"
           - long) china baby doll
      1 c  Sugar
      5 sm Bottles of assorted
           - food coloring; or more
      1 c  Candied fruit (preferably
           - small pieces) *
 
  After mixing the dough (addint the bean or doll now, if desired)
  and letting it rise, shape it into an oval ring, following the
  description given above for the approximate dimensions **. Sprinkle
  the top of the cake evenly with sugar and make swirls with food
  coloring all over the top, with the swirl of one color slightly
  overlapping the next. Imbed the the pieces of candied fruit in the
  top of the cake, concentrating most of them in a band about 1-1/4"
  wide all the way around. Set the cake on a baking sheet and bake
  according to instructions in the recipe you use. The finished cake
  should be lightly browned wherever the dough shows through; the
  parts covered with colored sugar should appear slightly crust.
  
  * The cakes that you purchase in the local bakeries do not have the
    fruit on them.
  
  ** Dimensions-Shape-an oval ring about 2-1/2" thick and about
     3" high at the highest point; and the decoration, as elaborate
     and colorful as possible in order to make the cake look like a
     jeweled crown. As for the bean or doll, it can be baked into the
     batter or pushed into the finished cake from underneath-just so
     long as it's done secretly, so no one knows in advance which
     slice will designate the monarch for the week.

  -New Orleans CB
  
  Posted by: Waldine Van Geffen (VGHC42A)
  
  MM by Cathy Svitek
 
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