Episode 40 – King’s Cake

Episode 40

King's Cake

March 6, 2011
King’s Cake

Mardi Gras is almost here and hopefully this recipe reaches you in time!  King’s Cake is a pastry that is served on Mardi Gras.  It is a basic sweet bread, similar to danishes or other breakfast pastries, with a delicate nutmeg flavor and is filled with a simple cream cheese filling.  This recipe is a great introduction to yeasted doughs and developing gluten so if you’re looking for an introduction into breads this might be a good place to start!

King’s Cake gets its name from the Christian (or Catholic) story of Christmas and the three kings – which kind of makes sense since Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is the day before Lent (which starts on Ash Wednesday).  For the non secular rest of us who are merely looking to celebrate Mardi Gras on a non-religious level, King’s Cake also gets it’s name from the trinket that is usually placed inside the dough prior to baking.  Sometimes it’s a baby (supposedly to represent the baby Jesus) but crowns are also commonly used – though it really can be anything.  The person who finds the little trinket in their cake is called King and has special privileges and obligations.  It varies from party to party but the most common obligation is that whoever is King usually has to make or provide the King’s Cake for the next party.

King’s Cake is a yeasted bread so it will take a while to make.  After you have successfully kneaded it, the dough has to rest for about 2 hours.  Then after you fill it and shape it, it needs to rest for an additional 45 minutes.  The resting allows the yeast to work.  The yeast leavens the dough and imparts a fermented flavor to the bread.  It also allows the dough to relax – after lots of kneading and shaping the dough becomes tense.  If you were to try to shape it right after kneading it would spring back and if you baked it right after shaping it may bake into an unexpected shape.  The last 45 minutes is called final proofing and during this time the yeast also continues to leaven the dough and ferment it.  If you want to make King’s Cake be sure to plan ahead and set aside about 4 hours from start to finish to make it.  It’s not an intensive recipe so you can still do other tasks while it rests (in fact I made baklava before the first 2 hour resting period was up).

The first king's cake I made didn't have an egg wash, the glaze was much thinner, and the ends didn't meet up quite right. It didn't collapse though.

The funny thing about this episode was that I had to film it twice.  The first time the dough came out fine – there was nothing wrong with it or the video.  Unfortunately when I uploaded it to my computer I ended up overwriting the first scene.  At first I was only planning on doing the first scene and then just tossing out the dough but I wanted to make it again because I thought I could do a better job.  The first king’s cake I made looked weird where the dough’s ends met to form the ring.  Plus when I glazed the first king’s cake, it was too runny so it didn’t look quite right.  Anyway, I ended up just refilming the whole episode.

So here’s the recipe for King’s Cake which includes the cream cheese filling (don’t forget you can use neufchatel too!) and the lemon glaze.  Don’t forget to buy your purple, yellow/gold, and green sprinkles!  Enjoy the video below!  Thanks for watching!