….and so do our Olympic Themed posts for Lets Lunch. This is exciting. All those countries. All those sports. All those colors!!! And all the wonderful dishes that are about to appear at our Lunch this month. We could chose a dish from a country that is competing and bring it along. I thought about it for a long time before I decided on … no real country at all.

It is the beginning of the Mardi Gras season in Louisiana. That means King Cakes. So how about an….

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    ….Olympic King Cake

    4¾ cups all-purpose flour, divided
    1 cup sugar, divided
    1½ teaspoons salt
    2 (¼-ounce) packages fast-rising yeast, such as Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise
    ¾ cup warm whole milk (120 to 130°)
    ½ cup warm water (120 to 130°)
    ½ cup butter, softened
    2 large eggs
    ¼ cup melted butter
    1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
    Sugar Glaze, recipe follows
    Colored Sugars, recipe follows

1. In a large bowl, combine 1½ cups flour, ¼ cup sugar, salt, cinnamon, and yeast. Add milk, ½ cup warm water, and butter to flour mixture, and beat for 2 minutes at medium speed with an electric mixer. Add eggs and ½ cup flour. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining 2¾ cups flour to make a stiff dough. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.*****

2. Place 5 round containers on a lightly greased cookie sheet. (I used 3 inch ramekins and they were too large. I would use nothing bigger than a 2 inch round.}

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3. Punch dough down, and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 5 equal portions. Roll the 5 pieces into 5 balls and then into 5 long pieces. Wrap the five pieces around ramekins or another small round dish. Brush with melted butter. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 375°. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, Remove from oven, and let cool completely on cookie sheet 10 minutes. serving plate; drizzle each with Sugar Glaze, and sprinkle with Colored Sugars

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Sugar Glaze
MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS {Which is WAY more than you will need.}

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar and milk until smooth.

Colored Sugars

    1 cups sugar, divided
    16 drops red food coloring
    8 drops blue food coloring
    8 drops green food coloring
    8 drops yellow food coloring

1. Place 1/3 cup sugar in each of three small resealable plastic bags.

2. In a small bowl, combine red and blue food coloring until it turns purple. Add purple food coloring to one bag, green coloring to another bag, and yellow coloring to third bag; seal bags, and shake each until sugar is even in color.

So I guess I did chose a country — the US! But good luck to ALL the extraordinary and brave athletes.

Look for the round-up on Betty’s Blog Asian in America.

Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) is a twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join. The theme is posted at the first of the month for the next month. You can visit us on FaceBook.

*****I made the dough in the bread machine. Use the dough setting. Same ingredients. Place the liquid ingredients in the machine first and then the mix of dry. I added the 1/2 cup of butter in pieces right after the other ingredients had mixed into a ball. When the dough cycle ends then transfer to the lightly floured surface and continue with the recipe in step 2. I also had more dough than I needed so I made 5 rolls in Texas Muffin Tin.

Here are the Olympic Dishes: Enjoy!

Cheryl’s Homemade Vegetarian Poutine

The other Cheryl’s Russian Beef Soup

Anne Marie’s Sochi Sliders

Nancie’s Russian Hamburgers

Jill’s Honeybell Chess Pie

Mai’s American Chocolate Guiness Whoopie Pie

Grace’s Coconut Hot Chocolate

Betty Anne’s Ham Garlic Pineapple Rice

Lucy’s Russian Tea

Annabelle’s Flaming Cheese

Linda’s Guinness Stout Ice Cream

Lisa’s Hot Borscht

Linda’s Meyer Lemon Cake