Description
The King Cake is a New Orleans tradition that involves a pastry, a small plastic baby, and a party. The King Cake is baked with a small plastic baby hidden inside, the person who gets the slice with baby in it has to host the next party.
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- ⅔ cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ⅔ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup melted butter
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Make pastry: Scald milk over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
- Stir together warm water
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- and yeast in a large bowl. Let stand until creamy
- about 10 minutes.
- Add cooled milk mixture to yeast mixture and whisk in eggs. Stir in remaining white sugar
- salt
- and nutmeg. Beat flour
- 1 cup at a time
- into milk/egg mixture. Once dough comes together
- turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic
- 8 to 10 minutes.
- Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl; turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume
- about 2 hours. When risen
- punch down and divide dough in half.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
- Make filling: Combine brown sugar
- pecans
- flour
- raisins
- and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour melted butter on top and mix until crumbly.
- Roll each piece of dough into a 10×16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough and roll up tightly like a jelly roll
- beginning at a wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form 2 oval-shaped rings.
- Place each ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors
- make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1-inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size
- about 45 minutes.
- Bake in the preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
- about 30 minutes.
- Make glaze: Stir together confectioners’ sugar and water in a bowl until smooth.
- Push doll into bottom of one warm cake. Drizzle glaze over both warm cakes.
Prep Time: 1 hr
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 4 hrs 30 mins
Servings: 16