King Cake Cupcakes for Mardi Gras 2012!!

Today is Fat Tuesday and I thought it would be fun to celebrate the start of the Mardi Gras season with King Cake Cupcakes!! King Cake is a traditional dessert with a hint of cinnamon, sometimes filled with cream cheese, served during the Mardi Gras celebration. In fact, there are parties that are entirely centered around this cake! The The cake is tratitionally baked in a bundt style and drizzled with a glaze that has been tinted the traditional colors of Mardi Gras; Purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power. Once baked a small baby which is supposed to represent Baby Jesus is hidden in the cake and the tradition is that whoever gets the peice with the baby in it, will get to host next years King Cake party and of course make the cake! This is a high honor for the person who finds the baby!! While researching the cake, I thought it was interesting and I never knew this before, that Mardi Gras actually has religious roots. It really never occured to me that it happened at the start of Lent and ended when Lent was over. I guess you learn something new every day!

Compostion of the Cupcake

My interpretation of the Mardi Gras King Cake in cupcake form is a southern buttermilk spice cake topped with Cream Cheese frosting swirled on top with all three Mardi Gras colors.