Wow, it's an important day today! As a great fan of politics, I am most excited about the fact it's Super Tuesday and will no doubt be up late watching TV coverage of what amounts to a national primary. To celebrate the day, I decided to make sugar cookies for the office to snack on this afternoon. Using some cookie cutters I found on eBay, and that marvelous book "Cookie Craft" (link is at right), I made sugar cookies last night and decorated them with red sprinkles this morning. In the interest of bipartisanship, I ate both a donkey (his tail was crooked) and an elephant (too many missing sprinkles) for breakfast. And yes, yes, I know; I should have used blue sprinkles as well, but I simply didn't have any. However, I do have both donkeys and elephants, one giant US cookie (I dropped the other US cookies getting them out of the oven, which just about killed me) and stars for the undecideds, I guess. The tea to sip with these Super Tuesday teatime treats? Liberty Tea, of course.
Now it's also Fat Tuesday, a celebration about which I have learned a little more since marrying my New Orleans-born husband. I've never had a King Cake and wanted to try it, so I picked one up at the grocery store last night. DH tells me the Baby Jesus figure is supposed to be hidden in the cake, not packaged separately as this one is. So ... what do I do now? Poke a hole in the cake and stuff Jesus in there? Now THAT's wrong! No, I think I'll just let the Lord sit quietly nearby.
Here's what I learned about the King Cake on holidays.net: "The New Orleans tradition, begun in the 1870s, borrows heavily from European customs. As part of the celebration of Mardi Gras, it is traditional to bake an oval cake in honor of the three kings - the King Cake. The shape of a King Cake symbolizes the unity of faiths. Each cake is decorated in the traditional Mardi Gras colors: purple represents justice, green represents faith and gold represents power. A small baby, symbolizing the baby Jesus, is baked into each cake." Whoever finds Jesus has good luck. (I can personally attest to that, so now the King Cake thing makes perfect sense to me!) I never did think of an appropriate tea to go with King Cake, however. DH says it should probably be French, and he is right of course. Any suggestions? Well, enough of that. It's time to go vote!
What clever treats you've made! Enjoy "Super Fat Tuesday," as a friend calls it.
ReplyDeleteThe great thing about your King Cake is that everyone can find the baby Jesus and therefore, there is good luck for all!
ReplyDeleteJulie for Bigelow Tea
I love the political cookies and the matching tea! What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to admit, I've never heard of King Cake. How interesting.
The blessed bean or plastic figure in the more recent years in king cakes. Is not only to bring the one who finds it good luck, whoever finds the blessed bean is to be the host of the next party. The parties start well before fat tuesday. Some very elaborate and very expensive others small social get-to-gethers. The social clubs are very costly. Often the finder will swallow the blessed bean the baby is less likely to be swallowed.
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