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King Cake

5.00 Mitt(s) 1 Rating(s)1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

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Level: Intermediate

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Description

The traditional New Orleans favorite is available only from Twelfth Night to Mardi Gras day. With this recipe, you can have it all year round. To be completely authentic, you should place a small plastic baby or large dry bean inside the cake. The person who gets the slice with the baby/bean is supposed to provide the next King Cake.

Ingredients

  • FOR THE CAKE:
  • 1 envelope Dry Yeast (.75 Ounce Packet)
  • ¼ cups Warm Water (110 Degrees)
  • 1 teaspoon Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Flour
  • ½ cups Milk
  • ½ cups Sugar
  • 2 sticks Butter
  • 2 whole Egg Yolks
  • 2 whole Eggs
  • 4 cups All Purpose Flour (approximately)
  • _____
  • FOR FILLING:
  • 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
  • ¼ cups Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Flour
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 2 whole Egg Yolks
  • 1 can Fruit Pie Filling (16 Ounce Can), Optional
  • 1 whole Egg
  • _____
  • FOR ICING/TOPPING:
  • ⅔ cups Powdered Sugar
  • 2 teaspoons Lemon Juice To Taste
  • 6 drops Food Coloring (red, Blue, Green, & Yellow)
  • 6 teaspoons Sugar

Preparation

Mix the yeast with the warm water. Stir 1 teaspoon of the sugar and 1 teaspoon of the flour into the yeast, and set aside.

Bring the milk just to a boil, and stir in the butter and the remaining sugar. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Let the mixture cool to lukewarm. Beat in the egg yolks, whole eggs and the yeast mixture.

Beat in approximately 2 cups of flour, until the dough is fairly smooth, then gradually add enough additional flour to make a soft dough that you can form into a ball. Knead it, by hand or machine, until smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil a bowl, turn the dough once or twice in it to grease it lightly all over, cover with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

This makes enough dough to make two cakes. You can make two cakes or freeze half to use another day. (The filling recipe is for one cake.)

Preheat oven to 375.

With the other half of your dough, form a long sausage-type roll before rolling it out into a rectangular shape. Roll it out as thin as a pie crust.

Mix together the cream cheese, sugar, flour egg yolks, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. If using the fruit pie filling, drain of excess liquid. Spoon the cheese filling down the center of the dough along the length of the dough. Spoon the pie filling along side the cheese filling.

Mix egg with a bit of water to create an egg wash. Fold the long edge of the dough over the filling, brush top with egg wash, and then overlap the other edge over the filling as well. It should now look like a long roll folded in thirds. Brush with additional egg wash, if desired, to seal dough. Gently maneuver the cake on to a well-greased or parchment-lined baking sheet forming a circle. As you move the cake to your baking sheet, carefully flip it over so that the seam side is down. Pinch the ends together to form a circle. You can squeeze and form your dough ring to manipulate it into a more even circle. Cover, and let it rest for 30 minutes. Brush with remaining egg wash, and bake for 25-35 minutes. The cake should have risen and be a golden brown. Cool.

Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add enough water to slightly thin out the icing. Be careful not to make it too thin.

Put two teaspoons of sugar into three small bowls. Mix 2 drops of yellow in one dish, 2 drops of green in the second, and 1 drop each of red and blue into the third. Mix sugars until you have gold, green, and purple sugar.

Pour icing over cooled cake. Sprinkle the sugars liberally over the top. The messier, the better!

One Comment

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maryosi on 2.17.2010

My family just moved to upstate New York this year after living in Mississippi or Louisianna for the prior 16 years. I was really missing Mardi Gras this year so I made these cakes yesterday and took them to my husbands lodge . It wasn’t as complicated to make as I thought it would be and everyone enjoyed the “oddity”. I filled one with the cream cheese mixture and cherry pie filling and the other I filled with a butter-brown sugar- cinnamon. They both were wonderful. I would definitely make this again.

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reluctantsouthernbelle on 1.31.2011

Just got done with two years in Mobile for graduate school, and I was missing a king cake. As you know, hardly anyone outside the gulf coast is able to make a decent one, so I knew I would have to tackle making one.

This recipe is awesome! The bread is awesome it somehow manages to be flaky yet dense at the same time. The filling was really good too. The issues I had were mostly from inexperience with construction. I have a few suggestions for future king cake makers:
1. If you decide to not use the fruit filling, make a little more cream cheese filling just to make sure there is enough for the whole cake.
2. Also, try to make sure that the filling makes it way all the way to the ends of the roll and stays there. Otherwise you end up with a big section of your ring that has no filling. One of ours ended up that way.
3. Also, final transport to the cookie sheet is a delicate step. Be cautious of sliding filling and small tears.

This recipe is a “go to” recipe. Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

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