Festive Kings Cake Recipes

CLASSIC KING'S CAKE

Steps:

• In small bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water to dissolve. Set aside.
• Combine flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt in a large mixing bowl of stand mixer. Stir in lemon and orange peel. Make a well in the center and add yeast mixture, milk, beaten eggs and beaten egg yolks. Gradually fold together. Add 1/2 cup of the butter and beat using dough hook of a stand mixer on Low speed until dough forms ball.
• Place ball on floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, adding flour if necessary. Butter the inside of a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Place dough in bowl and turn to coat the entire surface with butter. Cover and set aside for 45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
• Heat oven to 375°F. Brush a large baking sheet with remaining butter. Return dough to lightly floured surface, knead several times. Shape into 14 inch long roll. Place on baking sheet and form from a ring, pinching ends together.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool cake on a wire rack.
• For the glaze, combine the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Stir until smooth. Once cake has cooled, drizzle icing on top using a fork. Top with colored sugars and plastic baby, if desired. Serve.

FESTIVE KING'S CAKE

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix the sugar, yeast, salt and 2 cups flour. In a small saucepan, heat milk and butter to 120°-130°. Add to dry ingredients; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg yolks; beat 2 minutes longer. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough., Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours., For filling, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; roll into a 24x6-in. rectangle. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar lengthwise down one half of the dough. Fold dough lengthwise over filling; pinch seam to seal. Transfer to a greased baking sheet, seam side down. Shape into a ring, pinching ends together to seal. Cover with a kitchen towel; let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour., Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. For topping, mix the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough milk to reach desired consistency. Spread over cake; sprinkle with colored sugars.

SUPER EASY MARDI GRAS KING CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet.
• Open the cans of sweet roll dough and unroll the dough from each can into 3 strands. Working on a clean surface, place 3 dough strands side by side and gather them together to make one large strand. Fold this in half, and roll slightly to make a fat log. Repeat steps with the remaining dough. Place each log on the prepared baking sheet and shape to make a ring, overlapping the ends and pinching them together to make a complete circle. Pat the dough into shape as necessary to make the ring even in size all the way around. Cover loosely with foil.
• Bake in preheated oven until firm to the touch and golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. Check often for doneness so the ring doesn't overbake. Place on a wire rack and cool completely.
• Place the cake ring on a serving plate. Cut a slit along the inside of the ring and insert a small plastic baby, pushing it far enough into the cake to be hidden from view.
• Divide the frosting evenly between 4 bowls. Stir 1 tablespoon of milk into each bowl to thin the frosting. Use the frosting in one bowl to drizzle over the cooled cake. To the remaining three bowls of frosting, stir yellow food coloring into one and green into another. Stir the red and blue food colorings together with the frosting in a third bowl to make purple frosting. Drizzle the cake with yellow, green, and purple frostings in any desired pattern. Dust the cake with multi-colored sprinkles and decorate with beads, additional plastic babies, curly ribbon, and other festive trinkets.

THE BEST CREAM CHEESE KING CAKE

Steps:

• Combine sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar, butter, and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring, until butter melts, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; let mixture cool to 100 to 110 degrees F, about 15 minutes.
• Stir together water, yeast, and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a 1-cup glass measuring cup; let stand for 5 minutes.
• Combine sour cream mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, and 2 cups of the flour in the bowl of a heavy-duty electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low; gradually add 4 more cups of flour, beating until dough comes together.
• Turn dough out onto a surface dusted with 1/4 cup of the flour. Knead, gradually adding remaining 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoons at a time, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Dough should be tacky but release easily from surface.
• Place dough in a well greased bowl; turn to grease top. Cover; let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Beat cream cheese, sugars, cinnamon, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in egg.
• Gently punch dough down; divide in half. Roll 1 portion out into a 22x12-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Keep the other portion covered. Spread 1/2 of the filling over rectangle, leaving a 1-inch border. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans. Carefully roll up, starting from a long edge.
• Place roll, seam-side down, on a large parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bring ends of roll together to form a ring. Moisten ends with water; pinch together to seal. Repeat with remaining dough, filling, and pecans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Uncover dough rings.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cakes are a deep golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes completely on wire racks, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Stir confectioners' sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract together to make the glaze. Stir in 3 tablespoons milk. Add additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until pourable but still opaque. Pour evenly over cakes. Sprinkle with sparkling sugars, alternating colors to form bands.

MARDI GRAS KING CAKE

Steps:

• FOR THE CAKE:.
• Gently heat the milk to a warm body temperature (about 100 degrees). In a small bowl, whisk the warm milk with the yeast and sugar. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes until bubbly.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the creme fraiche, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix on low to combine. Add the yeast mixture, melted butter and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt.
• On low speed, add the flour one cup at a time, and mix until the dough comes together. It's okay if it's not completely smooth, there is more kneading to come!
• Remove the dough from the bowl, and place on a large counter or work surface. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Working with one portion at a time, add desired amount food coloring and knead by hand to distribute evenly. This will take some time, and it's okay if the color is streaky - it's more important that the dough is smooth. Well-fitted disposable gloves are great to prevent staining your hands.
• Place the colored dough balls into three small, greased bowls and cover with plastic wrap. Let them rise for 45 minutes to an hour in a warm spot. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled in size.
• In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, ground cinnamon and 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
• Lightly flour the work surface and roll each dough portion out to roughly 18 by 6-inch rectangles. Evenly scatter the brown sugar filling over each rectangle. Roll each piece of dough into a spiraled log, like a cinnamon bun, moistening the end with water to seal.
• Once all three pieces are rolled, joint the ends of all three together with some water and braid the logs together. Move the braid to a parchment lined baking sheet and form the braid into a large ring, joining the ends together by firmly pressing them together with warm water.
• Cover the sheet with plastic wrap and let rise for 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
• Once the ring has puffed slightly, bake at 375 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes. It should be golden brown on top, and not gooey when poked with a knife. Let cool.
• FOR THE ICING:.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and salt until smooth. Add the warm water. Divide the icing into three portions and tint with the desired amount of food coloring.
• Ice the cooled cake as desired. To get a stringy effect, use 3 piping bags with very small tips and zig zag the icing over the cake alternating the colors.

TRADITIONAL NEW ORLEANS KING CAKE

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 1/2 cup sugar, butter, milk, egg yolks, salt, lemon zest, nutmeg and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky)., Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. , Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 16x10-in. rectangle. Combine cinnamon and remaining sugar; sprinkle over dough to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet; pinch ends together to form a ring. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Brush with egg., Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. For glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice and enough water to achieve desired consistency. Spread over cake. Sprinkle with colored sugars.

EASY MINI KING CAKES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 360 degrees F (182 degrees C). Spray the air fryer basket with cooking spray.
• Stir brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon together in a small bowl until smooth.
• Remove crescent roll dough from the can and separate into 4 rectangles. Press the seams together tightly to seal the dough.
• Spread butter mixture evenly over each rectangle, not going all the way to the edges. Start at the bottom of each long edge and roll tightly into a 10-inch log, sealing any open seams. Bring the ends of each roll together to form an oval shape, making sure you press tightly to seal so the filling doesn't ooze out in the air fryer and burn.
• Place one or two at a time in the prepared air fryer basket without overcrowding.
• Air-fry in the preheated air fryer for 5 minutes per batch. Remove to a wire rack and cool.
• Meanwhile, whisk powdered sugar and milk together until smooth. Divide mixture among 3 bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl.
• Drizzle icing over each cooled cake and decorate with sugar or sprinkles. Let icing dry before serving, about 10 minutes.