Mardi Gras Party

Fat Tuesday is a fun aspect of Catholic life. I had been saveing Elizabeth Foss' recipe for at least six years, and I spent 4 hours trying to make her triple hazelnut cake on Sunday afternoon (similar recipe in link). First I ground up nearly a pound of toasted hazelnuts (after the peelings were removed) for the cake batter. I doused the batter with Fra Angelico liqueur. Put some in the chocolate ganache filling, too. Then the buttercream frosting flopped! So on Monday I scraped it all off and started over. Different buttercream recipe, more liqueur. Much better resuls. I also made 2 very pretty King Cakes (with a baby hidden inside) and Jambalaya (with chicken, sausage links, and crawfish) so I could take some to book club as well as the Carpenter's Mardi Gras Party.

Polar Bear got the piece of King Cake with the baby Jesus--hooray!