It’s Fat Tuesday today, and making a Mardi Gras King Cake is about as crazy as it gets in my house. At least the cake looks like it is ready for a party. Gotta love a cake that is colored purple, gold, and iridescent green, not to mention includes baking a Baby Jesus into it. Here’s the thing though…it really isn’t a cake. It is more like a sweetened bread, filled with almond paste, sugar, and cinnamon or other types of fillings, then decorated with the colors of Mardi Gras.
Start with making a cream base. Over low heat, mix together sour cream, sugar, butter, and salt until just melted. Set aside.
Then activate the yeast. Remember, this is really a bread, not a cake, and yeast is a critical component of the recipe. Activate about 1/2 oz of active, dry yeast into warm water and a little sugar. Mix together. It’s important the water is warm enough. I checked it with my cooking thermometer to ensure it was at about 115 degrees. Microwaving the water for about 30 seconds did the trick. Let sit for five minutes.
That’s all it takes to go from flat to active. See the difference? You can smell the yeast.
Mix together the cream base, yeast, two eggs, and one cup of flour in a large bowl. Start adding additional cups of flour until all six cups are incorporated. You’ll take the dough out of the bowl and knead it further on a lightly floured surface for about five minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. I mixed by hand, so adding that last cup was tough and a little bit of flour wasn’t fully mixed in. A stand mixer fitted with a dough attachment should allow you to get everything.
Let it Rise
You’ll need the cake to rise twice in the recipe, with the first rise occurring now.
For this first rise, you need a warm place (about 85 degrees) and someplace draft-free to let the yeast do its work. I use the “warm oven” method for ensuring I have the right environment. I turn the oven on to 200 degrees for TWO MINUTES, then turn it off. You should be able to touch the sides of the oven and the racks with your hands, but it will feel noticeably warm. That is when I cover the bowl and put it in to rise for an hour or until it is doubled in size.
After that hour is up, take out the dough and punch it down. Divide it into two dough balls.
Begin rolling them out into two 20″ x 12″ rectangles.
Then, fill with the almond paste-butter-sugar-cinnamon filling. For my cake, I actually added a bit of cream cheese. Notice that you don’t have to get this part absolutely perfect. My filling was haphazardly slapped on and trust me, no one complained about the results.
Roll up the dough length-wise into rolls, bend ends together to form a ring, and seal with a bit of water.
Put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or silicon baking mat, as shown), and with kitchen shears, make some cuts into the dough about an inch apart.
You’re now ready to let the cake do a second rise. Cover and set aside for about 20-30 minutes.
The cake will increase in size a bit, so be sure to give lots of space. The baking sheet I used is 18″ x 13″ and putting both the cakes on it was pushing it a bit. They did eventually touch, but luckily it didn’t ruin the shape of either.
When the second rise is finished, bake for about 16-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
You are almost ready to start decorating the top, but before you do…there’s a creepy part.
Hide the Baby Jesus
You hide a Baby Jesus in each cake. The person who ends up with it is “King” or “Queen” of Mardi Gras and is suppose to have all sorts of good luck come their way.
(That kinda makes up for the creepiness.)
If you don’t happen to have a random baby figurine on hand, a dried bean will do.
Glaze the Cake
Once Baby Jesus is hidden, you can proceed with glazing the cakes in a simple confectioners sugar glaze, sprinkling with alternating colors of purple, gold, and green as you go.
Mardi Gras king cake is so good, it really shouldn’t be relegated to a once-a-year treat. It isn’t super sweet, and because this particular recipe uses all-purpose flour instead of pastry flour, the cake comes out much more dense, somewhere between a bread and a cinnamon roll, making it a perfect breakfast nibble with coffee or tea, as well as a delicious dessert.
You Might Like These Too!
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz container sour cream
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup salted butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 oz of active dry yeast or two (1/4 oz packages)
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 6-61/2 cups all-purpose flour
- FILLING
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1 can 12 1/2 oz almond paste
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Optional: 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon for dry filling.
- Pinto bean or Baby Jesus
- GLAZE
- 2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp water
- Purple green, and gold colored sugar
Instructions
- Prepare the cream mixture. In a medium saucepan over low heat, cook the first four ingredients (sour cream, sugar, butter, salt) stirring often until butter melts, set aside.
- Activate the yeast. Stir together yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, (about 115 degrees) and one tbsp sugar in a one-cup glass measuring cup. Let stand five minutes.
- Beat sour cream mixture, yeast mixture, eggs and two cups of flour. Add in remaining 4 cups, one cup at a time, making sure the dough is well incorporated after each cup.
- Grease a large bowl, and set aside.
- Lightly flour a surface for kneading with the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Turn dough out and knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Place in the well-greased bowl, turning to grease top.
- First rise. Cover and let rise in a warm place (about 85 degrees), free from drafts for one hour or until dough is doubled.
- When doubled in size, prepare the shape. Punch down dough, and divide in half. Roll each portion into a 22x12 inch rectangle.
- In a microwavable dish, put the almond paste and butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds, or just enough to warm up the paste and melt the butter so you can mix together easily. Mix in the sugar and cinnamon until well mixed.
- Now fill the cake. Spread 1/3 cup of the filling evenly on each rectangle, leaving a one-inch border.
- (Optional.) Layer an additional, optional, dry filling over the entire rectangle. Stir together 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon, and sprinkle evenly over the bottom of each rectangle.
- Roll up each dough rectangle, length-wise, jelly-roll style. Bring ends of roll together to form an oval ring, moistening and pinching edges together to seal. Repeat with second dough roll.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- With kitchen shears, make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at one-inch intervals.
- Second rise. Cover and let rise in a warm place (about 85 degrees), free from drafts, for about 20-30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
- When finished, bake at 375 degrees for 16-20 minutes or until golden on top.
- While baking, make the glaze. Mix the confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and water together and set aside.
- When done baking, slightly cool cakes wire racks for about 10 minutes.
- When the cake is cool enough to work with, but still warm, hide the Baby Jesus!
- Then, drizzle creamy glaze evenly over warm cakes. Sprinkle with colored sugars, alternating colors and forming bands.
- Cool completely before serving.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Southern Living.
Leave a Reply