New Orleans King Cake

Love What UEAT
Feb 8
4 min read

#neworleanskingcake #kingcake #mardigrascake #carnivalcake #louisanakingcake

A New Orleans King Cake is called a cake, however; it actually consists of a ring-shaped

brioche dough with a variety of different fillings. This delicious cake is served from January 6, (which is the 12th night after the birth of baby Jesus) all through carnival and ends on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). Fat Tuesday is the last festive day before Ash Wednesday, when the Catholics and Christians begin their 40 days of Lent.

The Epiphany on January 6, is also celebrated in Italy and is called “La Befana”, a witch-like old woman who delivers small gifts and candy to the good children and coal to the naughty children. She’s similar to Santa Claus who knows who’s been naughty or nice during the year.

Back to describing the King Cake. It often features a variety of fillings like cream cheese, brown sugar, raisins, chopped pecans or fruit fillings. It hides a small plastic baby, designating the finder as the host and baking of the cake the following year.

We don’t like baking with plastic, so to represent the lucky charm, we hide a green maraschino cherry, keeping with one of the traditional Mardi Gras colours.

Unfortunately, this time in our bake, we forgot to hide the green cherry in our King Cake!

INGREDIENTS: Time: 4 hours

DOUGH:

5 cups (550 g) all purpose flour

2/3 cup (150 ml) water

2/3 cup (150 ml) milk

3 tsps (7-8 g) dry active yeast

1/4 cup (50 g) sugar

2 tbsps (approx 30 g) shortening

1/4 cup (50 ml) neutral oil

1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract

1 egg white (room temp)

1 egg yolk (for egg wash)

FILLING:

3/4 cup (165 g) firm packed brown sugar

4 tbsps (57 g) unsalted butter

2 tsps (10 g) cinnamon

1/4 tsp (1-2 g) grated nutmeg

FROSTING:

3 cups (300 g) icing sugar

3-4 tbsps (45-60 ml) milk

1 tsp (5 ml) CLEAR vanilla extract

NOTE: should you not have any clear vanilla, DO NOT SUBSTITUTE with regular

vanilla extract. It will turn your frosting into a light brown colour.

Simply use only the icing sugar and milk.

GARNISH:

Purple, green and yellow/gold sanding sugar sprinkles

DIRECTIONS: Oven temp: 350F (175 C) Baking time: 40-60 minutes

DOUGH:

1. In a small pot over stovetop, warm together the water and milk.

2. Pour into a small glass bowl. Add your yeast. Give it a good whisk. Let rest for 5 minutes.

3. In a stand mixer, add the flour, yeast mixture, sugar, vanilla extract, egg white and neutral oil. Mix on medium speed till the dough collects and starts to form.

4. Add shortening, one teaspoon at a time, making sure well incorporated in between additions.

5. Remove dough from the mixer bowl. With your hands, form the dough into a ball. Place into a glass bowl. Cover and place it in a warm draft free spot. Let rise for one hour or until double in size.

NOTE: no need to grease the bowl, as the dough has oil and shortening as ingredients.

Dough has doubled in size. Time to prepare the filling.

FILLING:

6. Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour in the cooled melted butter. Combine and mix well. Set aside.

7. Roll out dough into a rectangular shape of approximately 16”x10” (40cm x 25cm).

8. Using an off set spatula, spread the filling as best as you can, leaving about 1/2”-1 (1.25cm-2.5cm) of the boarder. Add the plastic baby, or your choice of lucky charm. This is where we forgot to add the green maraschino cherry.

9. Loosely roll it up lengthwise, pinching together the last roll.

10. Place it seam down, on a parchment lined baking sheet. Shape it into a circle.Insert both ends and pinch together.

11. Cover with plastic wrap, topped with a clean tea towel. Let rest in a warm spot for an additional hour or until double in size.

12. Once doubled in size, egg wash with the egg yolk and a splash of water.

13. Using a clean pair of scissors (or kitchen shears or a paring knife) make several slits on top of the dough. This will allow the steam to escape while baking.

14. Place in a preheated 350F (175C) oven. Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring onto a wire rack rack to fully cool.

Cake has fully cooled. Time to prepare the frosting.

FROSTING:

15. In a bowl, add your icing sugar. Start by adding the milk, a bit at a time. Give it a good stir. Add your CLEAR vanilla extract and mix well. If needed, add a little more milk or more icing sugar. Frosting should be thick, not runny.

16. Drizzle frosting over the entire cake. Sprinkle sections of the frosting with the coloured sanding sugar sprinkles. One section purple, one section yellow,one section green. Repeat sections all over the cake.