LOUISIANA MARDI GRAS KING CAKE

King cake is a way of life in Louisiana. No joke. The first thing people ask when it comes to local bakeries, is “who has the best king cake?” It’s true. It’s a big deal!

The funny thing is, it’s not even really cake. It’s bread. It’s fancy sprinkle pastry. But you know what? It’s delicious. And when you know how to make it, Mardi Gras is year round.

These days, there are many flavors or fillings for king cakes. I always go for the traditional, which is cream cheese and cinnamon. See below for the full recipe!

Sprinkles are important too! Good quality sprinkles make the difference in flavor and texture.

Mardi Gras Mambo.

Never too many sprinkles.

KING CAKE RECIPE

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup stick butter, cold (it needs to melt in the hot milk)
1/4 cup sugar
1t salt
1 large egg
2 active yeast packets
4 1/2 cup AP flour
Glaze: 4 cups powdered sugar, 1/3 cup 2% milk (may need more for your desired consistency), 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Filling: to your taste - about 8oz whipped cream cheese, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup chopped pecans, honey drizzle, ground cinnamon

Instructions

Microwave milk for 1 min 40 sec.

Add butter, sugar, salt, stirring to melt butter. Make sure the butter is at least a little cold, because it needs to melt in to the milk. Add each ingredient as listed in order to the milk.

Add beaten egg. Stir lightly.

Stir in yeast packets. Make sure all the yeast is in the milk mixture, a lot of sticks to the spoon or whatever you used to pour in if not straight from the packet, and also a lot sticks to the spoon and rim of container. The yeast will be clumpy. That’s fine.

Pour all into mixer letting it settle to the bottom for a few minutes.

Turn on mixer to about 1-2 speed, slowly add in flour until dough is balled on bread hook. You may need to use a towel to cover the mixer where the attachment is, because if your speed is too fast, some flour will shoot out and make a messy situation. Let the dough knead for 5 minutes, pushing the dough down if you have to.

Remove dough from stand mixer bowl, and knead for 5 more minutes on countertop. Form dough into a ball and place in a proofing bowl.

Brush melted butter over dough and let proof for hour.

Roll dough into a long rectangle, about 1/4” thick, 18” long and 8” tall.

Cut 1/2” - 1” (your choice) diagonal lines on each side.

Spread fillings down the middle. First the cream cheese, then the cinnamon, brown sugar, pecans and honey drizzle, in that order.

Braid over the center line until reaching end but leaving a few braids. Towards the center you will need to braid tighter, pulling the dough cuts further down the center because the center is the fattest part of the circular cake when fully formed. It will look a little bigger on one side, but that’s okay. That’s what icing is for.

Grab both ends of long strip of braided, filled dough braid and curve to meet together. You will have a blunt end that meets the other end with loose braid strands left. Those strands of dough you will use to cover the other side that you will tuck in. So essentially, you will cover up the end to camouflage any imperfections. You may need to use some melted butter to keep the braids you used to cover the cut side to hold in place. You can totally do that. It’s supposed to look seamless.

Baste lightly with melted butter and let proof for 35 more minutes while it’s fully formed in a circular bread braid. I usually have it formed in a pizza tray covered in foil already so that I can bake it right after it’s proved for the second time.

If the cake is proving in the oven, remove it so you can set oven to 375°F. If it’s sitting in a draft-less area in your kitchen, then just set your oven anyway to 375°F and bake for 17 min.

Keep an eye on it once it hits 15 minutes. You don’t want a crispy king cake bread.

Your braid thickness won’t show from underneath the glaze and sprinkles, but usually they aren’t too thin because that would leave more room for the filling to seep out while cooking. And you do not want that!

Cool for 30 minutes at least, mix glaze ingredients until fully smooth and drizzle over with your favorite Mardi Gras sprinkles. NOTE: the king cake must be cooled. If it’s too warm, the glaze icing WILL melt, thin, and drip off the sides. YOU DO NOT want that.