King's Cake

This is a King's cake. I guess they have them at mardi gras time? That's what they tell me at least! I never had heard of one until my oldest was taking French Class. He volunteered me as class baker! The recipe which he MADE me follow entailed opening two cans of cinnamon rolls, forming them into a circle and baking them.

The horror.

The pain.

I usually reserve the canned cinnamon rolls for the children in the morning before school. You know when I don't have to deal with the sugar crash at 9:00 am!

When I told the kids I was sticking a baby in a cake they were horrified. After they saw the baby they said it was a choking hazard. I just can't win.
The next chance I had I made a real one from a real recipe that used flour and eggs and butter.

The third chance I got I made one using a lot of different recipes all mixed together for joy and happiness! So really I consider it my own.

Get up at the crack of dawn (or a little before) and put a cup of water in a big mixing bowl. You're basically making two loaves of bread at once so make sure it's big. You can use your hands for all of this. But baby you're going to gain some muscle!

Now for two teaspoons of yeast!

Now one cup of flour!

Stir it up! You may be saying "that's an awful lot of yeast for one cup of flour!" You would be right, those yeasts are going to run out of easy things to eat very quickly and start to get creative in their munching. It's when they have to work hard that they get extra delicious!

Now cover them up for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We'll get back to them later!

Grab some pecans. Most pecans are "raw" meaning they haven't been toasted. These are going into the center of our cake so they won't toast while they bake so we've got to do it ourselves.

Toast them in a skillet. Just heat them until you can smell them and then turn the heat off. Make sure you stir them pretty regularly. You don't want to have pecans that are burnt on one side and raw on the other! Continue stirring them around until the skillet cools off!

Now for some lovely raisins! These are perfect for munching on in that they're slightly on the dry side. I recommend plumping them a little for the baked goods though!

Throw them in a bag and add half a teaspoon of liquid. More if your raisins are super dry.

Here's a good candidate! Orange liqueur is lovely with raisins. Everybody can choose their own liquids. Water is fine! Put it in. Shake it up. Set it aside until it's raisin time!

Oh, look! Our yeast mixture is all bubbly and sour smelling! It smells just like a good bakery. We're going to work on it again now. Add one more teaspoon of yeast because some of that other yeast has worn itself out and will not be moving on from here!

Stir it in!

Add one cup of milk. If you want to hurry things up a little. Give it a spin in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. Not too hot--it'll kill the yeast and you'll end up with no rising!

You'll need four eggs for this dough too!

Put them in a cup and beat them up a little before you mix them in! I always find that the yolks just slip around without breaking otherwise!

Milk and eggs go in and stir them around. It won't be a smooth mixture quite yet! You've got to add a little flour for that.

Add two cups of flour.

2/3 cup sugar . . .

3 teaspoons of salt . . .

and half a cup of melted butter! This is an action shot! You may have surmised that this is not a "health" recipe. King's cake puts the "Fat" in Fat Tuesday!

Stir all of those things around a bit and then break out the . . .

Freshly ground nutmeg! Isn't it beautiful? You want about 1/2 teaspoon of it for a cake this big! Mix it in a little.

Now for 3 more cups of flour! Mix them up for awhile. Two minutes or until you see there's no more flour laying around the sides.

We're not quite there yet. We need more flour! I had to add a whole other cup and a half of flour! I added them in half cup portions.

This told me I had hit the jackpot! At first I thought it was too wet but I tested it a little.

It was nice and stretchy . . .

But it stuck to my hand.

If I just tapped it with a nice clean dry hand though . . .

My hands came away clean!

So I put a lid on it and let it rise until it filled the bowl!

About 3 hours later . . .

Look at how it's grown! It smells good too! Doughs that contain lots of butter, sugar, and salt grow very slowly because those things inhibit the yeast's action.

Now for the filling! You'll need a whole cup of brown sugar, a tablespoon of good cinnamon, and 1/2 cup of flour.

I mixed mine in a plastic bag because my brown sugar was a little lumpy! I needed it to behave and had to beat it a little. No uncompliant ingredients are allowed in my kitchen! I showed it who is boss! Please don't call social services . . .

Oh and another stick of melted butter of course . . .

Remember how wet that dough is? You better flour your counter. About 3 feet of counter will do . . .

It's gotten very pliable during it's rise! Feels smooth and rich! Now we've must whip it into shape.

I pick it up off the counter and I stretch it. Sort of like how you move a sheet when you're making a bed.  If you notice any particularly sticky spots put a little extra flour under them! I stretched mine to a rectangle that was around 32 inches long and 11 inches high.

Then I took that lovely stick of melted butter and spread about half of it all over the dough!  Well almost all over.

At the top I left a good inch or inch and a half unbuttered. I want my dough to seal after I roll it up! Buttery things tend not to stick well. This is a life lesson . . .

Sprinkle your cinnamon sugar mixture all over the buttered portions!

You want it all over!

Now add the raisins and pecans.  You want a little bit in each slice of cake. They're like little bonus prize packages of deliciousness in the middle!

Now sprinkle the rest of that melted butter on. We wouldn't want it to go to waste would we?

Now start rolling!

How about some rolling music?

Once I got to the end. I just started rolling my way back up to the top. Oops, sticky spot! Just tap it with a little flour!

Once you can only see the plain dough edge you left earlier, grab it and pull it up and over to the top where you can see it!

Give it a good pinch to make sure it's sealed.

Now roll it over on that seam. It's time to move it! You need to grab it like you do a baby. Firmly with no squeezing! Also try to insure it has a soft landing where ever you take it!

First move it into a horseshoe shape. Then I actually put it across my two outstretched arms to lift it to the pan. I need a third hand. Why don't they make mouth operated cameras?

There we go! I put it on some nonstick foil. Parchment paper would be excellent for this too. This pan is 13 by 18! It's enormous. You can halve this recipe and have cake for your family. I, on the other hand, am baking for a luncheon!

Pinch the end together. Just generally move everything around till it's in a shape you can live with!

It'll do! Notice there's a whole finger width between the ring and the side of the pan. When it's touching the pan I'll know it's risen long enough! So cover it and wait. 

Here we are an hour and a half later! It's touching all 4 sides of the pan. Preheat the oven to 350 F. The longer the better! I started mine after it had been rising for an hour!

Brush the ring with an egg beaten with a splash of milk! My dough is so thin in parts I can see the nuts and raisins! That's called "window paning." It's the Holy Grail of dough readiness . . .

Cut some slices in the top. You can go to almost 1/3 of the depth of the cake if you like! They allow for expansion. Bake it for 35-40 minutes.

It's done! It's so shiny and golden it almost seems a shame to glaze it! Once it's cool you stick the baby in it. I cut a hole in one of those slits and jammed him in. I'm not telling you which one though! I repaired the hole with a little dab of commercial frosting.  Then I melted the rest of the can in the microwave and poured it on. A little colored sugar and voila!

A beautiful King's cake!

I only dropped it, like, twice trying to find a good method for transporting it to my husband's place of work! Did I mention they're sturdy?

It smelled really good. I hear it tastes good too. Do you know that I've made this cake 4 or 5 times now and I've never actually gotten to eat one? They're always going some place . . . leftovers never come home.

King's Cake

For the Cake

1 cup warm water
3 tsp dry active yeast
6-7 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
1 cup milk, room temperature
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup sugar
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

For the filling

2/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp orange liqueor
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter

Glaze

1 egg mixed with 2 tsp of milk

Stir 2 teaspoons of yeast into 1 cup of water. Stir in 1 cup of flour. Cover and leave at room temperature for 3 hours.

Add 1 teaspoon of yeast to yeast flour mixture. Add the following mixing thoroughly after each entry: milk, eggs, 2 cups of flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg and butter. Add 1 to 3 more cups of flour in half cup portions until dough is stretchy and pulls away from sides of the bowl when it's mixing. A clean dry fingertip should be able to tap it without sticking.

Let rise 3 hours or until doubled.

To make the filling, mix the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon together.

Roll dough out into a 11 X 32 inch rectangle. Brush butter on rectangle leaving a one inch bare edge on one long side. Sprinkle sugar mixture over butter. Distribute raisins and pecans evenly over sugar. Roll up the dough into a long cylinder and pinch shut. Place on large (13X18 in) cookie sheet and cover with saran wrap. Let rise 90 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 F. Brush bread with glaze. Slice top of loaf with 1 inch deep slices to allow for oven rise. Bake 35 minutes.

I glaze mine with one can of cream cheese frosting melted for 30-60 seconds in the microwave. Traditionally you also sprinkle purple, green, and gold sugar on it too.