King Cake

Carlyn’s Filled King Cake for Mardi Gras

by Carlyn Foshee Chatfield

Texas size, serves 24-32 – or can be divided into 2 smaller 8-9″ size cakes

NOTE:  takes about 6 hours to make

 

Gather what you need in addition to the ingredients:

  • 12-14″ diameter round cake pan OR two 9″- 10″ round cake pans
  • 1-2 small clean cans (5-8 oz size, i.e.: tomato sauce or evaporated milk) with top and bottom removed
  • 1 small plastic baby (1”) ; can substitute a very large dried bean
  • 1/4 – 1/3 Cup Purple sugar crystals
  • 1/4 – 1/3 Cup Green sugar crystals
  • 1/4 – 1/3 Cup Golden Yellow sugar crystals
  • Mardi Gras decorations to lay over the finished cake (beads, coins, masks)

Bread

  • 2 packages active dry yeast
  • 1/2 Cup 110° F water
  • 1 Cup 110° F milk
  • 1/2 Cup sugar  (for making bread)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5 Cups flour
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 Cup butter OR oleo-margarine/vegetable/ vegan spread, melted and cooled
  • 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 Cup Sugar (to combine with cinnamon for dredging dough ropes )

Filling

  • 2 Tablespoons plain yogurt
  • 1-1/3 Cups Brown Sugar
  • 2/3 Cup flour
  • 1/2 Cup butter or vegetable subsitutions, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Glaze

  • 1-1/2 Cups sifted powdered sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon butter or vegetable subsitutions, softened
  • 1/2 teaspoon  vanilla
  • 2 Tablespoons Pet evaporated Milk
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Make bread “sponge”

Run hot tap water until it reaches 110-120°F.  Use a candy thermometer to test temperature.  In a glass measuring cup, sprinkle the warm tap water with the dry yeast and stir to dissolve.  Let stand in a warm place (top of stove, etc.) about 5 minutes.  It should foam up.  While the yeast is foaming, warm the milk in the microwave for 1-1/2 minutes on high.  Test with a candy thermometer.  If not yet warm enough, heat again in microwave on high for 1-1/2 minutes until it reaches the right temperature.  In a large bowl, mix warmed milk, foamy yeast, sugar and salt.  Beat with dough hooks and add 2 Cups flour, 1/2 cup at a time.  When smooth looking, but sticky to touch, cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place for 45 minutes.  (It should rise some.)

Add rest of bread ingredients

Mix together the oleo and beaten eggs.  Beat the oleo and eggs into the risen yeast mixture.  Now add in all the rest of the “bread” flour, 1/2 cup at a time EXCEPT the last 1/2 Cup.  When the flour has been added and the dough is smooth, beat for 3 minutes with dough hooks.  During this last kneading, sprinkle the last 1/2 Cup of reserved flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the bowl.  Next, spray a large bowl with Pam and turn the dough into the greased bowl.  Spray the dough liberally with Pam.  Lightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Make brown sugar filling

Mix filling while the dough is rising this second time.  Leave the filling out so that it stays soft.

Create bread “cakes”

Punch down dough and divide in half at end of second rising.  Roll out one of the halves on a floured surface.  Lift the dough from the board (if it stretches, that’s okay…it may even tear if you rolled it very thin) and place in a greased 14″ round cake pan or divide between two greased 9-10” cake pans. Place a clean can in the center of the round dough and press down firmly. Remove center of dough that the can cut through but leave the empty can in place to help the thick bread cook completely through the center.

Spread filling over the dough with a spatula or flat knife. Divide the remaining dough into thirds for a braid.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar on the floured board and begin to make snakes out of the remaining three pieces of dough. Each of the snakes needs to stretch at least 2 feet long. Roll the snakes in the cinnamon sugar mixture, then braid.  Stretch and lift it off the board. It is okay if it breaks. Arrange the braided dough in a circle on top of the filling, starting from the outside edge and working into smaller circles as you get closer to the center can.  Stretch and pull the edges of the flat dough over and close the braided edges.  Tuck the plastic baby under a fold of dough.   Cover again lightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Bake bread “cake”

Bake at 350° F about 40 minutes for 14″ pan, and 20-25 minutes for 9-10″ pan.

The outside of the dough should be slightly crispy and a toothpick inserted into the middle of bread will out clean, with no crumbs sticking to it.

Make Glaze

While the bread is baking, mix up the glaze.  Spread glaze over warm bread.  Immediately sprinkle the glazed bread with colored sugars.

Scatter Mardi Gras decorations over top of completed cake. If you like, add another plastic baby on top so your guests will know what to look for.

Makes about 32 servings.

 

Why the Chatfields have King Cakes

When we moved to Valencia, California in 1996, I could find no Louisiana spices, red beans and rice, gumbo file or jambalaya mixes — certainly no King Cake!   I had taken King Cakes for granted every Mardi Gras since the 1980’s when a co-worker at The Houston Post introduced us to her family’s favorite Baton Rouge or New Orleans King Cake.

In the two years we lived there, we ordered Zatarain’s spices and mixes by the case and doled them out to homesick friends and California converts to Cajun cooking, but when it came to King Cake I had to learn to make my own.  This recipe came about through trial and error and is the result of my longing for home and familiar traditions.  My recipe is a “filled” King Cake – a style typical of Baton Rouge, Slidell, or Metairie; the breads offered by most bakeries in Houston are traditional King Cakes, more of a jumbo cinnamon roll with colored icings.

Whoever finds the small plastic baby will have good fortune for a year, but they also have to bring the next King Cake!