King’s Cake

I love King's Cake, the bright colors, the gooey goodness inside and of course the plastic baby. So I set out to make one yesterday and realized why most people buy them instead of making them. They take FOUR hours. You can't get around that, and all the reviews of it said one way to make it easier was to make it in a bread maker; however, I do not have neither the money to buy a bread maker nor the space to put one. I was stuck making it by hand for four hours and once I halfway done, I realized the recipe was for making double. So luckily, my gracious boyfriend was nice enough to take one off my hands. The recipe is very delicious and I highly recommend it, if you have four hours to spare and the patience to knead dough for 10 minutes. Also I made a few changes to the original recipe, I halved it, so you only have to make one cake and I doubled the filling, since mine didn't seem to have enough plus I added some lemon juice to the icing as it was too sweet even for my large sweet tooth.

• PASTRY:
  
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1/8 cup butter
  
• 1 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
  
• 1/3 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  
• 1/4 cup white sugar
  
• 1 eggs
  
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 
  
• FILLING:
  
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 cup raisins
  
• 1/2 cup melted butter
  
• 
  
• FROSTING:
  
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons water
  
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  

Directions *I added notes between the *s in the directions*

1. Scald milk, remove from heat and stir in 1/8 cup of butter.*To scald mean to basically burn, you want it to 185 degrees F or basically until it starts to boil* Allow mixture to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water with ½ tablespoon of the white sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. *It will pouf up and bubble*
2. When yeast mixture is bubbling, add the cooled milk mixture. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the remaining white sugar, salt and nutmeg. Beat the flour into the milk/egg mixture 1 cup at a time. * This will get very hard to mix, you will hurt your arm and you may break a whisk* When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. *This is a bitch, no getting around it*
3. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. *Yes, really, it will double in size*
   
4. When risen, punch down *This is fun* 
 
5. 
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
7. 
8. To Make Filling: Combine the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, chopped pecans, 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup raisins. Pour 1/2 cup melted butter over the cinnamon mixture and mix until crumbly.
   
9. Roll dough out into large rectangles (approximately 10x16 inches or so). Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough and roll up each tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at the wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form oval shaped rings. Place the 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. *Oh my god, it does double again!* 
10. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. *check it at 20 minutes, they tend to bake quickly, and you don't want it as brown as mine*
    
11. Push the doll into the bottom of the cake. Frost while warm with the confectioners' sugar blended with 2 tablespoons of water. *AND LEMON JUICE*
    

1. 
   
   
   Notes-
   
   
   1. This takes a looonnnggg time. It is intensive, you need a large surface to knead the dough and then again to roll it out and put the filling on it.
      
   2. You need more flour. You have to flour everything, the rolling pin, the surfaces, and the dough. So make sure you have an extra 2 cups of flour
      
   3. Kneading is difficult work.
      
   4. It will rise to double its size, make sure your bowl can handle it. Mine couldn't.
      
   5. The icing may need more lemon juice/ water. And you make actually want to make a second batch to drizzle over each slice. 
    
   
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