King Cake

Submitted by Ladymedic

"From March 02 Calgary Sun news paper. Looked so good I had to try it. It smells wonderful and was super easy to make."

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 20
• Yields: 2 rings
• Serves: 40

ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1⁄4 cup butter
• 4 1⁄2 teaspoons yeast
• 2⁄3 cup warm water (110)
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 5 1⁄2 cups flour

• Filling

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2⁄3 cup chopped nuts
• 1⁄2 cup raisins
• 1⁄2 cup melted butter

• Frosting

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 -2 tablespoon water
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• green sugar crystals
• purple sugar crystals
• yellow sugar

directions

1. Scald milk remove from heat and stir in butter. Allow to cool to room temperature.
2. In a large mixing bowl dissolve yeast in water and 1tbsp of sugar for ten minutes.
3. Add cooled milk to yeast mixture along with remaining sugar, salt and nutmeg. Whisk in eggs.
4. Add flour 1 cup at a time until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
5. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead 8-10 minutes.
6. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, turn to coat dough. Set in a warm area to rise for two hours.
7. Punch down dough and divide in half. Roll each half into a square 10 inches by 16 inches.
8. Combine filling ingriedients and put half on each piece of dough. Roll up jelly roll style bring ends together to form 2 oval shaped rings.
9. Place rings on cookie sheets covered by parchment paper.
10. With scissors cut 1/3 of the way threw dough at one inch intervals.
11. Place pans in warm area to rise again for 45 minutes.
12. Pre-heat oven to 350, bake for 30 minutes rotating pans half way threw.
13. Cool on cookie racks for ten minutes. Prepare frosting and drizzle over cakes. sprinkle green, yellow and purple sugar in stripes over the top.

Reviews

[xnomom]

I made this for Twelfth Night and I was really pleased with how it came out. Because it makes two cakes I made one with nuts and one without, because some people at the party did not care for nuts. I also left out the raisins because I am not a fan. I doubled the glaze as it did not seem to be enough after glazing the cakes. I reduced the amount of sugar crystals from what is on the picture because I just felt like it would be too much. Everyone loved it and it was delcious even days later heated up for breakfast or a snack.

 

[Julie F]

Made this for a Spanish Class project. In Mexico they eat this cake on January 6th to celebrate Epiphany. My daughter had to make a recipe from the book Like Water for Chocolate. The recipes in the book are written within the story, so I adapted that recipe to this one. That recipe called for candied fruit, which I could not find, so I used dried strawberries rather than the raisins called for here. My daughter reported that the class (Juniors and Seniors in HS) thought this tasted professional, like something you would get in a cafe. So pleased! It was easy to make, though a bit time consuming. I never make bread dough by hand - always use my bread machine, but followed the recipe here and it turned out fabulously. Very moist and airy and just sweet enough. I did shorten the cook time by about 10 minutes because mine were getting very brown on top. I worried that it wouldn't be cooked through, but it was fine. I also didn't like the lemon added to the icing, but that is just personal preference. Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!