Nobody puts baby in the King Cake. Mardi Gras is right around the corner, so that means enjoying Creole food and lots of King Cake! Have you ever baked a King Cake before? If not, don’t worry this King Cake recipe is easy and delicious. This brioche type sweet dough is a hybrid between a danish and a cinnamon roll. It reminds us of an Entenmann’s Cheese Danish, but even better and fresher. We are excited to share the best King Cake recipe with you.
What is a King Cake?
It isn’t Mardi Gras without a King Cake. The King cake’s shape represents three kings. A King Cake starts with a sweet dough recipe. We highly recommend using a Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer to make the best King Cake recipe. This King Cake requires quite a bit of rising time and makes two King Cakes. We recommend allocating two days to make and decorate the cake. This dough consists of eggs, butter, and sugar. These ingredients make the cake light, fluffy and delicious.
The Best King Cake Recipe
We baked this King Cake recipe many times, but this was the first time we made it with a hand mixer. We also kneaded the dough by hand. Trust us, the whole process was so much hard without a stand mixer. We highly recommend using a Stand Mixer to make a King Cake, Bread or Pizza Dough. Also, we never baked from scratch outside of the NYC / NJ area. In Park City, you will need to make adjustments for high altitude or find a high altitude recipe. Otherwise the texture of the cake will be dense.
After the dough rises and doubles in size, roll it with a rolling pin. One trick when rolling dough is to flour the surface and place plastic wrap on top of the dough. These tricks will prevent the dough from sticking to the surface and the rolling pin from sticking to the dough. These steps will make it easier if kids want to help you make the cake too.
Next, we filled the dough with a cream cheese filling. Don’t overfill and make sure to leave a one inch border around the edges. This ensures that the filing doesn’t ooze out during the rolling process. If you have any leftover filling, save it to make stuffed French Toast the next morning.
The next step is to roll the dough and connect the two ends until you have an oval shape. You’ll need to pinch the ends and bake.
Once the cake is baked, move the cake to a cooling rack to cool. After the cake has cooled, then it is time to add the icing and colored sugar. The purple, green, and gold colors of the King Cake represent justice, faith, and power, respectively.
You can buy pre-made colored sugar or color the sugar yourself with cane sugar, a Ziplock bag and some food coloring. At home, we usually color the sugar. Here in Deer Valley, we decided to save on some time and effort by purchasing purple, green and gold sugar. You also need to add a plastic baby (or 2 if you have more than one kid at the dinner party). The person that gets the piece with the baby gets good luck and will host the next Mardi Gras dinner party.
This year, celebrate Mardi Gras at home and try this King Cake recipe. We also created our gorgeous Mardi Gras tablescape with CV Linens and Instaballoons. You can find more Mardi Gras party tips here.
The best things in life are meant to be shared. Especially King Cake.
Anonymous
King Cake
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 16-ounce container sour cream
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/4-ounce envelopes active dry yeast
- ½ cup warm water 100° to 110°
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 6 to 6 1/2 cups bread flour*
Cream Cheese Filling
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Purple- green and gold sugar
Creamy Glaze
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Cook sour cream, sugar, butter and salt in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring often, until butter melts. Set aside, and cool mixture to 100° to 110°.
- Stir together yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and 1 tablespoon sugar; let stand 5 minutes.
- Beat sour cream mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, and 2 cups flour at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until smooth. Reduce speed to low, and gradually add remaining flour (4 to 4 1/2 cups) until a soft dough forms.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Place in a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), 1 hour or until dough is doubled in bulk.
- Punch down dough, and divide in half. Roll each portion into a 22- x 12-inch rectangle. Beat 3/4 cup sugar, cream cheese, 1 egg, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly on each dough rectangle, leaving 1-inch borders.
- Roll up each dough rectangle, jelly-roll fashion, starting at 1 long side. Place one dough roll, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bring ends of roll together to form an oval ring, moistening and pinching edges together to seal. Repeat with second dough roll.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), 20 to 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
- Bake at 375° for 14 to 16 minutes or until golden. Bake each cake separately and not at the same time. Slightly cool cakes on pans on wire racks (about 10 minutes).
- Stir together powdered sugar, butter, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Stir in 4 tablespoons milk.
- Drizzle Creamy Glaze evenly over cakes; sprinkle with colored sugars.
I never thought there is a King Cake named for a huge cake. I love the concept. It really blends with outcome design of King Cake.
I’m craving for these. The frosting seems so delicious ?
Seeing this cake makes my mouthwatering. It looks really delicious and look easy to make, I will be saving this recipe as my reference. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe. Your post is well written and the graphics are mouth watering at the same time!
I haven’t had king cake in SO long. Can’t wait to try this.
I am going to give this recipe a try this Superbowl weekend. Who cares that Mardi Gras is not here yet?!
I don’t think I’ve tried making something like this before but that is looking quite tasty. Would love to try this recipe out sometime.
Wow, thank you so much for the recipe! I really want to try making King Cake, it looks so good!
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe.my family loved it.will be sharing this recipe with my friends.they will like it.