King Cake

Ingredients

Dough and filling

• Four and one half cups all purpose, unbleached flour
• Two small packs of active dry yeast
• One cup lukewarm milk
• One half cup sugar
• One cup shortening, or unsalted butter, softened
• Three eggs
• One tablespoon salt
• One teaspoon lemon juice
• One teaspoon vanilla
• One teaspoon butter, melted [omit if using butter instead of shortening]
• Two 8 ounce packs of softened cream cheese & one fourth to one half cup sugar OR
• One half cup cinnamon sugar & one fourth cup melted butter

Glaze

• One cup powdered sugar
• One to two tablespoons melted butter
• One teaspoon lemon juice
• One teaspoon vanilla
• Milk
• Purple, gold and green sprinkling sugars [OR you can divide the glaze into three bowls and color them with food coloring]

Directions

1. Measure out the flour.
2. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk and stir in one cup of the flour.
3. This is the sponge - let it rise, covered with a cloth, in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime, gather & measure your ingredients, and when sponge is almost risen begin creaming the shortening (or butter) with the sugar.
5. When nicely creamed add in the eggs one at a time, and mix well.
6. Add in the flavorings: salt, vanilla, butter & lemon juice.
7. Add the sponge to the creamed butter mixture and combine. Add in the remaining flour and mix, using a dough hook (the dough is very sticky and difficult to kneed by hand) for at least five minutes. You can add a bit more flour while the dough is mixing if it seems way too wet, but don't overdo it. This is a fairly sticky, delicate dough.
8. Put the dough in a greased bowl about twice the size of the dough ball, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about one hour.
9. Pre-heat oven to 325º. Roll the dough out on a heavily floured surface (flour the top of the dough and the pin as well) into a large rectangle.
10. If making a cream cheese filled cake, beat the softened cream cheese with about ¼ to ½ cup of sugar (add the sugar gradually and taste - you only want it lightly sweetened). Spread this mixture over the dough leaving about 1 inch uncovered around the edges. (If making cinnamon, spread the rolled dough evenly with the melted butter, leaving the edges clean, then sprinkle the butter evenly with the cinnamon sugar).
11. You can either fold the dough in half along the long end and cut into three long strips or cut the dough into three long strips and roll the strips into tubes and then braid the three strips together. Be very careful when braiding the dough. It is VERY delicate and will easily break if stretched very much.
12. Cut off the uneven ends (you can bake these as rolls) and form into an oval ring.
13. Bake for 30 minutes until done.
14. While baking make the glaze, by melting the butter in a microwave proof bowl.
15. Add the powdered sugar, mix, add the lemon juice (this helps the glaze harden a bit), mix, add vanilla, mix. Now add a little milk at a time until it is a thick glaze. Add more powdered sugar if it gets too thin.
16. When the cake is done, remove from oven and let cool about 10 minutes. Glaze the cake and quickly add the sprinkling sugars before the glaze hardens, alternating the colors around the cake.
17. Let cool and serve.

Source — Mother's home recipe.
Adapted from an old
New Orleans Times-Picayune clipping.

Prepared by Alexander Frederick
Louisiana Anthology
April 3, 2024