King Cake
Mardi Gras' official cake: a sweet brioche ring filled with cinnamon and brown sugar, iced and dusted with purple, green and gold sugar.
Overview
A rich enriched dough, flour, yeast, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, rises for 1 hour. Cinnamon filling: brown sugar, butter, cinnamon. Dough rolls into a large rectangle 40 × 25 cm; filling spreads across; rolls up like a Swiss roll; bends into an oval ring; ends pinch together. Rises for 45 minutes; bakes for 25 min. While warm, icing of icing sugar, milk, vanilla drizzles over. Coloured sugar (purple, green, gold) dusts in alternating bands. A small plastic baby (or a dried bean) hides inside the slice before serving.
Ingredients
Dough
- 500 g strong white bread flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 7 g instant yeast
- 80 g caster sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 180 ml warm milk
- 80 g unsalted butter (melted)
- 2 eggs (large)
- 1 lemon (zest)
Cinnamon filling
- 100 g unsalted butter (softened)
- 150 g dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Icing
- 200 g icing sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Coloured sugar topping
- 60 g caster sugar
- Purple, green and gold food colourings (paste preferred; liquid works)
- (OR: buy pre-coloured Mardi Gras sugar from a baking-supply shop)
Surprise
- 1 plastic baby (small, or a dried bean / a small marzipan ball as a substitute)
Method
Stage 1 - Dough
- In a stand mixer or wide bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt and cinnamon.
- Pour in warm milk, melted butter, eggs and lemon zest.
- Knead 8 minutes (or 10 minutes by hand) till smooth, elastic and slightly tacky.
- Rest in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, 1 hour till doubled.
Stage 2 - Coloured sugars
- Divide the 60 g sugar into 3 portions of 20 g each in small bowls.
- Add a tiny dab of food colour paste to each (purple, green, gold); rub with the back of a spoon to distribute.
- Spread on parchment to dry while you work.
Stage 3 - Filling
- Cream the soft butter with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to a smooth paste.
Stage 4 - Shape
- Knock back the risen dough.
- Roll on a floured surface to a rectangle 40 × 25 cm.
- Spread the filling evenly, leaving a 1 cm border at the long edges.
- Roll up tightly from one long edge into a cylinder.
- Pinch the seam to seal.
- Bend the cylinder into an oval ring; pinch the ends together so the seam is invisible.
- Place on a parchment-lined baking tray.
Stage 5 - Second rise
- Cover loosely with a damp tea towel; rise 45 minutes till puffy.
Stage 6 - Bake
- Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
- Brush the king cake with a little beaten egg or milk for shine.
- Bake 25-30 minutes till deep golden.
- Cool 15 minutes on the tray.
Stage 7 - Hide the baby
- From underneath, push a small plastic baby (or substitute) into the dough. Don't bake the plastic - slip it in after baking.
Stage 8 - Icing
- Whisk icing sugar with milk and vanilla to a thick pourable glaze.
- Drizzle generously over the warm cake in zigzag bands.
Stage 9 - Colour
- While the icing is still wet, sprinkle alternating bands of purple, green and gold sugar around the cake.
- Each colour gets its own segment of about a third of the cake.
Stage 10 - Serve
- Cool fully before slicing.
- Warn diners about the plastic baby.
- Tradition: whoever gets the slice with the baby hosts / buys the next king cake.
Notes
- Yeast dough, not cake batter: king cake is essentially a brioche-style yeasted bread shaped into a ring. Don't expect a sponge texture.
- Don't pre-bake the plastic: plastic babies don't survive 180°C ovens. Hide AFTER baking by pushing up from underneath.
- Three colours, three bands: the Mardi Gras tradition is purple-green-gold in distinct sections, not mixed sprinkles. Use food-colour paste rather than liquid for vibrant colour.
- Eat within 2 days: fresh king cake is bouncy and tender; day 3 it dries out.
Storage
- Keeps 2 days at room temperature in a sealed container.
- Day 3 onwards, French toast it (turning stale king cake into bread pudding is itself a NOLA tradition).
- Freezes 1 month unsliced; thaw at room temp 3 hours.
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