Below is an excerpt from Tom’s Dining Diary from 2011, reporting on his birthday party. In a cruel twist of fate, he had to share his birthday party with of all things, the Super Bowl. He took it in stride as he did with all things, and crafted a muffuletta king cake for the party. Here is his brief description and some bad pics.
"The dish I was most interested in from a research standpoint was my muffuletta king cake. Someone must have thought of it before, but I can't remember hearing of such a thing. The dough's texture seemed perfect as I punched down the big balloon of it and rolled it into three two-foot snakes. I called in the Marys to braid it, because I don't know how to braid. Mary Ann had the idea of decorating the top of the loaf with purple, green and gold sesame seeds. Green and gold were no problem; purple was much harder to achieve, but we hit it close enough.
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The oval was visually arresting. The bread had the texture of those good Italian loaves they make at Angelo's, but that's a little too firm for this purpose. Next time I will add more eggs (six instead of two, I think) and more milk.
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We cut the whole thing across into a top and a bottom. Covered the bottom with olive salad. (Next time I will make my own, but there was no time today, and I used Boscoli.) Next came the layers of ham and Genoa salami with provolone, mozzarella, and Swiss cheeses. The top of the loaf stayed in one piece more successfully than I dared hope. We cut the whole thing into king-cake-size slices and put it onto the table. It went quickly."
