King Cake

The pinnacle of centerpiece desserts, king cake has to be one of my favorite Mardi Gras traditions. The bright and colorful decorations sit atop a fairly simple dessert: a sweet cake with a cinnamon filling covered by a lemon and vanilla glaze. Easy to create, this is an absolute must to kick off the Carnival season. Present this festive cake at your Fat Tuesday celebration and let the hunt for the hidden baby begin! Never made a king cake before? Confused about what a “hidden baby” means? Read on to learn all about this delicious tradition:

What Is A King Cake?

King cakes are one of the best parts of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras festivities. In their traditional form, they’re a sweet pastry shaped into a ring (like a king’s crown) and covered with icing. They’re most often cinnamon- or cream cheese-filled, but every bakery has its own specialty, and you can find everything from pecan praline to coconut.

How To Make King Cake

INGREDIENTS

CAKE

• Egg Yolks: Despite the name, king cake is really a type of yeasted pastry (think cinnamon buns), so it starts with an enriched dough, rather than a batter. What’s doing the enriching? Egg yolks, in part. They help keep the crumb soft and moist.
• Sour Cream: Sour cream provides further enrichment to the dough, helping it achieve a nice, tender texture and adding a bit of tanginess.
• Granulated Sugar: Standard white sugar sweetens the cake but also helps to tenderize it by interrupting gluten development.
• Melted Butter: I use melted, rather than room temperature, butter because it blends in with the other wet ingredients more thoroughly, for a smoother batter and more even distribution of fat in the dough.
• Lemon Zest: Gives the dough some citrus brightness.
• All-Purpose Flour: No need for specialty flours here. Plain old all-purpose offers the just right amount of structure for this cake.
• Instant Yeast: I opted for instant yeast over active dry, because it can be added directly to the dough and speeds up the rising time.
• Cinnamon & Nutmeg: A little bit of ground cinnamon and nutmeg give the cake a bit of sweet spice warmth.

FILLING

• Granulated Sugar & Cinnamon: I use a simple 3:1 ratio of sugar to cinnamon to make cinnamon sugar for the filling.
• Unsalted Butter: Room temperature butter forms the base of the super-simple cinnamon swirl filling. Be sure to let it get nice and soft so it spreads easily over the rolled out dough.

GLAZE

• Confectioners' Sugar: Confectioners' sugar’s very fine texture allows it to dissolve quickly and turn into a smooth-as-glass icing with just a little bit of liquid and some vigorous whisking. It’s pretty magical!
• Whole Milk: I chose whole milk because it produces a smoother, more velvety glaze, and its higher fat content helps the glaze adhere to the cake.
• Lemon Juice: Included for something balancing tartness.
• Vanilla: Enhances the flavor of the glaze and adds a sweet, aromatic element.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

To start your king cake, you’ll want to pull out your stand mixer and fit it with the paddle attachment—we’ve got some serious mixing to do. Add the egg yolks, sour cream, granulated sugar, butter, and lemon zest to the mixer bowl and stir to combine.

Now, grab a medium bowl and whisk together the flour, yeast, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Make sure they’re evenly combined—you really don’t want to leave any pockets of salt or yeast.

With the mixer running on medium speed, gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. Swap out the paddle attachment for the dough hook and knead the dough until it starts to pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. The dough will seem quite sticky at first, but resist the temptation to add more flour—just let the mixer do its work.

Time to let the dough rise. Coat a large bowl with some oil to prevent sticking. Transfer the dough to the bowl, turning to coat. Cover the bowl with a clan kitchen towel and place in a warm spot in the kitchen until the dough has doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen (the colder the kitchen, then longer the rise).

Punch down the dough with your fist or fingertips to remove excess gas. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll out to a 20" x 12" rectangle; orient the dough so a long side is facing you.

Time to add the cinnamon swirl filling! Whisk together the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Grab a small offset spatula and spread the butter evenly over the dough, leaving a 1" border at the top edge. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over the butter. If you’re hiding a bean (in lieu of a baby) in the dough, place it on the dough now.

Starting with the edge nearest to you, roll up the dough into a log. Transfer the dough, seam side down, to a parchment-lined baking sheet and bring the ends together to form a circle; pinch to seal. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise once again for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375°. Bake the king cake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet; if you’re hiding a plastic baby, now’s the time to insert it into the cake.

While the cake is cooling, whip up the glaze. Whisk the confectioners' sugar, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla in a medium bowl until the sugar is dissolved and the glaze is smooth but pourable. You’ll know you’ve got the consistency right if the glaze is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. If necessary, whisk in more confectioners' sugar to thick or more milk, 1 tsp. at a time, to thin.

At this point, you can divide glaze among 3 small bowls and tint each with tint purple, green, and gold with food coloring, but I prefer to take simpler route. I drizzle the glaze over the cake and apply color with sanding sugar while the glaze is still wet (act fast!).

Full list of ingredients and directions can be found in the recipe below.

Recipe Tips

• How the king cake became a Mardi Gras tradition: The custom of making king cakes first started in the Middle Ages as a celebration of the birth of Christ. It was served at the Catholic Feast of the Epiphany, a dinner commemorating the coming of the three wise men (the “kings”) on the “Twelfth Night,” or January 6. It was brought to Louisiana from France in the late 1800s, where it evolved into the Mardi Gras tradition we know today.
• What's the deal with the hidden baby? My favorite part of this celebratory cake? The hidden baby (sounds weird, but hear me out on this one). There’s some disagreement over whether the baby hidden in most king cakes is meant to represent baby Jesus; some New Orleans bakeries swear it’s just the most popular of the many trinkets used. I say, if you’ve got a baby figurine, go for it. (Though you’ll want to hide it in there after the cake is baked, just in case.) If not, you could use a pecan, dried bean, or other small edible item, and add it in before baking. Whatever you hide, whoever finds it in their slice of cake must be crowned king for the day (and has to bring the king cake to next year’s celebration). Let the hunt begin!
• How to decorate a king cake: While the filling and flavors of a king cake can vary, what’s non-negotiable is the way they are decorated: sprinkles or icing colored gold for power, green for faith, and purple for justice. We decorate our cake with a thin glaze (drizzled on top while it is still warm), then add purple, green, and gold sprinkles (or sanding sugar) to complete our cake.

Storage

In the event of leftovers, this cake will keep well covered in plastic wrap for up to 1 week.