Mardi Gras King Cake

I've been meaning to make a King Cake for the last two years for Mardi Gras, but I hadn't gotten around to it. This year, thanks to President's Day falling the day before Mardi Gras, and me having the day off, I finally made one.


I had a really hard time deciding what recipe to use. I had an awesome vegan King Cake on Super Bowl Sunday, and I almost just used that recipe, but I didn't have all the vegan substitutes available. I found a couple recipes that had a cream cheese filling, and I'm thinking now I should have used one of them. The one I did end up using was more like a big cinnamon bun, but it was a little dry.


The recipe I used was from the Times-Picayune, and I only made a few adjustments. The actual shaping of the dough was a little confusing, so I made a few changes based on some other recipes I saw. It also had you dye the icing purple, green, and yellow, but I used purple, green, and yellow colored sugar on top of white icing instead.


Last year I tried to find plastic babies to put inside a cake in Park Slope, but I had no luck. I found them this year at A.C. Moore when I was in NJ visiting the family (for doughnut making!).


King Cake
adapted from a Times-Picayune recipe

For dough:
1/4 cup warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast (I used 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast)
1/4 cup warm milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
Red bean, pecan half, or plastic baby for inside cake

For filling:
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp sugar
I added 1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped

For icing:
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Purple, Green, and Yellow sugars

Place warm water in a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over top and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 5 minutes if using active dry yeast. Add the warm milk, butter, sugar, nutmeg, and salt and mix until fully combined. Stir in eggs and 3 cups of flour. If the dough is sticky, add more flour. Knead the dough either on a lightly floured surface or with the dough hook in a standing mixer, about 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic. Lightly grease a large bowl, and place the dough in the bowl and turn to grease both sides of the dough. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled.

Punch down the dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll out into a 30x9 inch rectangle (I had to use two cutting boards side by side since I don't have any surfaces that big). Cut the dough in half length-wise so you have two 30x4.5 inch pieces. Brush both pieces with the melted butter, then sprinkle with the brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans to within 1/2 inch of both long sides. Roll each strip like a cinnamon bun, enclosing the filling within the dough. You will then have two 30 inch cylinders of dough. Twist the two pieces together and bring the ends together into a circle. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover and let rise for 20 to 40 minutes or until doubled.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Make a small slice in the bottom of the cake and insert the baby.

Mix all the icing ingredients together until they are the right consitency, not too thin that it will run all off the cake and not too thick so that you can't pour it. I had to add a little extra powdered sugar. Pour the icing over the top of the cake and then sprinkle with alternating bands of purple, green, and yellow sugar.

Serve and make sure who ever finds the baby brings the next cake!