Tribute to George

Thanks to Mr. George Matthews, the one-and-only, oh-so-hilarious father of my wonderful friend Allison Matthews, every year around this time I start to crave King Cake.

For the past two years that I've known Allison, Mr. Matthews never failed to send a King Cake for Mardi Gras. As her family's from Louisiana, Mardi Gras is a pretty big deal for them. I didn't so 

much worry about Mardi Gras, as much as I did the cake. That moist,   

cream-cheese-filled, icing-topped, purple, yellow and green cake was hard to resist; every bite was a fun mystery to see if you'd be the lucky one to find the hidden baby.

This year, without fail, my body senses that

 Mardi Gras is here and sends on that

 unrelenting King-Cake craving. But clearly I'm not in Texas anymore and the

Mr. Matthews King Cake is not in Philadelphia, which means I have been forced to resort to making an attempt at replicating the mardi gras-goodness myself.

It turned out pretty delicious. Nothing like the Matthews original, but a satisfying substitution.