Christmas King’s Cake (Bolo-Rei)

Soak the raisins, cranberries and the rest of dried fruit (less the ones for decoration) in 1 cup of Port wine until ready to use.

Add yeast to warm milk, let stand for 10 minutes and stir to dissolve completely.

Sift the flour with salt in a large bowl, make a well in the center and pour in the dissolved yeast, folding the surrounding flour into the pool of yeast.

In another bowl, mix the softened butter, sugar, lemon and orange rind until fluffy using the flat beater of the mixer. Add the 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well.
Incorporate the flour mixture into the butter mixture and continue to mix until start you forming a soft and shiny dough and it starts to get unattached from the sides.

At this point, change the flat beater to a spiral dough hook and beat at medium speed for about 20 minutes. The dough will be soft, elastic and super sticky.

Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough, cover with a towel, put the bowl in a warm, draft-free place and allow to rise until double in size, for about 2 or 3 hours. In the meantime, wash the spiral dough hook for the next step.

Once the dough has doubled, punch down and let rest for more 20 minutes.

Put the bowl back in the mixer with the spiral dough hook attached and deflate the dough. Add all the nuts and the dried fruit that was immersed in the Port Wine, along with the wine into the mixture and mix to divide everything evenly into the dough.

On a lightly floured counter top, transfer the dough, and with dusted hands shape the dough into a long log.

Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Transfer the dough to the tray making it into a circle with a wide hole in the middle and attach the ends of the log. Cover it with a towel and allow to rise in a warm place for an hour or until double in size.

Pre-heat oven to 350 F with rack in the middle. When ring is ready, mix the egg yolk with a little milk or water to make an egg wash. Brush the top and sides of the ring with the egg wash. Decorate with the whole nuts and fruit strips (optional) and bake for 45 minutes until golden brown.

Put the cake on a cooling rack and use a brush to spread the fruit jelly diluted in some water over the top of the roll to give a shiny finish.

Allow to cool completely and dust with icing sugar.