Response to King Cake query:
King Cake is made during Mardi Gras season (January 6 through the day before
Ash Wednesday) in Louisiana and other parts of the south that celebrate
Mardi Gras. It is basically a coffee cake, made in a ring, and can be plain
(usually a mildly sweet egg/butter yeast dough) or filled in any number of
ways -- fruit fillings, sweetened cream cheese, almond paste, etc. It is
topped with a powdered sugar glaze which is sprinkled with three colors of
sugar -- green, yellow and purple, the Mardi Gras colors. The plastic baby
is inserted before baking, but it doesn't melt. The person who gets the
baby is supposed to supply the next king cake, or have the next party at
which the king cake is served.
Sarah