Ingredients:
1/4 cup sugar
4 t yeast
3/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup earth balance

1/4 cup firm tofu crumbled
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
3 1/2 cups flour

Warm the almond milk, water, and earth balance in a sauce pan. In a seperate bowl, combine the sugar and yeast. Pour the warm mixture over the sugar/yeast mixture and let sit until foamy.
Once foamy, take roughly 1/2 cup of the mixture aside and blend in the tofu. Remix back into the foamy mixture. Add the zest. In a seperate bowl, combine the salt, cinnamon, and flour. Add this to the wet mixture. Knead for a couple of minutes, incorporating all of the flour mixture. Cover in a warm area for roughly 2 hours or until doubled.
Divide the mixture into three equal parts and roll each into a long (roughly 2+ feet x 8 inches) strips. Fill with either the following filling mixture or 'cream cheese' or cooked fruit filling or some combination. Roll up each so that you have a long tube and seal with a little water. Once you have done this with all three, braid the three rolls together. Place on an oiled baking sheet and allow to rise for an hour and a half or until doubled. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Once cooled a bit decorate with icing and sugar.

Date Pecan 'Cream Cheese' Filling
1/2 cup pitted dates, chopped
1 cup pecans, chopped small
1/2 cup almond milk
1 T tapioca starch
1 t cinnamon
1 cup firm tofu, crumbled
1 T earth balance
1 T lemon juice
1/2 T brown rice syrup
1/4 cup sugar

Combine the tapioca starch and almond milk in a sauce pan. Whisk until all chunks are gone and heat until the mixture thickens. Add the dates, tofu, cinnamon, earth balance, lemon juice, syrup, and sugar and blend until smooth. Toss in the pecans. Allow the mixture to sit for at least 1/2 an hour before use (it will firm up) - soooo yummy!

Icing and Decorative Sugars:
1 cup sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 t brown rice syrup
1 T lemon juice
1 T almond milk

3/8 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 t chlorophyl from wheat grass or green food coloring
1/4 t tumeric + drop or two of water or yellow food coloring
1/2 t pomegranate molasses or a couple of blueberries or purple food coloring

Process the sugar and cornstarch in a processor until you get powdered sugar. Mix with the syrup, juice, and milk until thick.

For decorative sugars seperate the turbinado sugar into three containers. Add your choice of 'green' stuff to one, 'yellow' to another, and 'purple' the the third. Mix until the sugars turn color. I don't like to spend money on things like food coloring and like to keep it natural, so I have listed what I used, but go wild!

beautiful. i've never had king cake and i want some real bad.

Beautiful! Consider my interest drummed up.

That looks sooooo good....

I will have to make this.

Oh, and alfie says happy mardi gras

This is the only pic where he was not eating the mask.  I also have a kick asparagus black plague one, but my ex will not return it...

Last edited by Alf-redo (Wed 2/18/09 5:46 pm)

I just heard about king cake today!  I want to make one, but is it very very bad to skip the sprinkles on top?

dancer5 wrote:

I just heard about king cake today!  I want to make one, but is it very very bad to skip the sprinkles on top?

I just made these out of turbinado sugar, but you could totally skip them - though then you might want to take the icing, seperate it into three bowls and dye each a color, so it isn't just a wreath looking cake...

Looks scrumptious!

And the Alfie pic is so great!

Woah, way to church up king cake.  It looks damn near beautiful

Sarah, all of your food looks awesome!  (Anytime you wanna bring a king cake and hush puppies to Vegan Drinks, feel free to do so.)