It's very inspiring.
In many European countries, New Orleans and beyond, one of the greatest symbols of the Mardi Gras-Carnival season is the King Cake. Although not a cake in the traditional sense as we know it with fluffy layers and sugary sweet icing, King Cake is more akin to a cinnamon bread or pastry. King Cakes can be made a variety of ways - from the more complex from-scratch method of bread dough or puff pastry to a very simple method utilizing store-bought cinnamon roll dough.
Last year I was a little lazy about my King Cake (I put all of my energy into Jambalaya and corn bread) - and I went the cinnamon roll dough route. It came out great - don't get me wrong; I just used this recipe from Pillsbury. But this year I decided to challenge myself and make one from scratch.
Now if you think my fear of baking is bad, trust me, it's nothing next to the fear of baking bread. I hate working with yeast - it's just too temperamental for me. I've made loaves that don't rise higher than an inch and I've made bread so tough and solid, it could be categorized as lethal weapons. But I decided to put my fears aside and create King Cake from scratch...temperamental, cranky yeast and all.
And what do you know - my bread dough rose nice and high and wasn't as hard as a rock. This has a more traditional bread consistency; very light and cinnamon-y.
Don't be intimidated by all the steps. It takes a little time, but it's very easy. I promise.
So let's crank up the jazz, blues and zydeco music, pour a couple of Hurricanes and laissez les bons temps rouler!!
King Cake Recipe:
Ingredients:
Cake:
1/2 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup milk
4 Tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 1/2 cups flour unsifted
Vegetable oil
1 Tbsp cinnamon (divided)
1 1″ plastic baby doll
Icing:
1 cups confectioners’ sugar
1-2 tablespoons water
Colored sugars
Green, red, blue, & yellow gels
6 - 12 tablespoons sugar (depends on how much decoration you want)
Directions:
If your house is cold, turn your oven on to a warm setting (if available) – or the lowest setting possible.
Scald milk (watch for tiny bubbles around the perimeter).
Remove from heat and melt in the 4 Tbsp butter. Allow mixture to cool.
Pour the warm water into a small shallow bowl, and sprinkle yeast and 2 teaspoons sugar into it. Be sure your water is not hotter than 115 degrees or you will kill the yeast (I’ve done this – it sucks). Allow the yeast and sugar to rest for three minutes then mix thoroughly. Set bowl in a warm place for ten minutes, or until yeast bubbles up and mixture almost doubles in volume (if your house is cold, you can open your warmed oven door and set the bowl on the door to help it along – just don’t let it get too hot)
When your yeast mixture is ready, stir in the milk mixture (if it’s not quite at room temperature, just stream it in slowly to the yeast (tempering – you don’t want to shock your yeast mixture with heated liquid too quickly). Since I created the yeast mixture in a glass bowl, at this point I transferred everything to my mixer bowl.
Whisk in your eggs and stir in the remaining sugar (1/2 cup), salt and nutmeg. I like using fresh nutmeg, so I mainly eyeballed the amount.
If you haven't done so already, turn off your oven, but keep door closed.
Turn on your mixer and start adding in the flour one cup at a time. When your dough has pulled together (or your mixer just can’t take it any longer) – pull it out of the bowl and onto a lightly floured surface and start kneading until it’s smooth and not sticky (took me about 8 minutes of good kneading).
Coat the inside of a large bowl with either butter or oil. Put the dough ball in the bowl and turn until the entire surface is covered. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap (loosely) and place in a warm place (like your now slightly cooled oven) for 1 ½ hours – or until the dough doubles in volume. *If your house is relatively warm, you can just leave the dough covered on the counter away from drafts and it’ll rise just fine. My house was freezing - so into the warmed oven it went....
When ready, remove dough from bowl and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Using your fist, punch dough down forcefully.
I really wanted to show you how much the dough grew over an hour and a half - but I got so excited about punching it down, that I completely forgot to snap the picture. So...there's what it looks like post-puff. :-)
Divide your dough into two balls and swing them out into long cylinders. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top.
Twist the two strips together to form one spiral and then loop into a circle.
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| See all that great cinnamon in the folds? |
Place the dough on a non-stick, well-buttered, or silicon-sheet covered baking sheet. Cover with a towel and let sit for another 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Brush top and sides of cake with egg wash (one egg and one Tbsp water well blended).
Bake on middle rack of oven for 25 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Place cake on wire rack to cool.
Make the icing and sugars *below. Hide the plastic baby through the bottom of the cake (if desired). Spread icing over the top of the cake (I used a basting brush)…and decorate with colored sugars in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of green (for faith), gold (for power), and purple (for justice) as desired.
Icing
Combine sugar, water until smooth. If icing is too stiff, add more water until spreadable.
Colored sugars
Divide the sugar into sealable bags (1-2 in one, 1-2 in another, 4-8 in a third). In one bag, squeeze two drops of yellow, seal and knead until the color saturates all the sugar.
In second bag, squeeze two drops of green and repeat. In the third bag, squeeze 3 drops of blue and 4 drops of red and knead.
Recipe is my adaptation using a combination from two websites: All Recipes (HERE) and Mardi Gras Day (HERE)
