GreensCast  

King Cake

More than 6 cups flour (not self-rising)

¾ cup and 6 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 packages Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise Yeast® (¼ ounces each)

(You could probably use 2 packages, but since it comes in groups of 3 and since I don’t use it very often, I go ahead and use all 3.)

¾ cup milk

1 pound unsalted butter (almost)

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tiny baby doll (A dry bean, pecan half, or gold ring with huge stones securely set—the real ones, Dahling—may be used.

8 ounces cream cheese

½ cup pineapple preserves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup Karo® light corn syrup (approximately)

Purple, green, and gold food color

Decorative candies

Place 4 cups of the flour into a very large bowl. Add ¾ cup sugar minus 3 teaspoons and the salt. Stir the dry ingredients together.

Warm the milk but do not allow it to be warmer than what is comfortable to touch. In other words, it should be tepid. Add 3 teaspoons of the sugar. Stir the yeast into the water to dissolve it.

Melt 3 sticks of butter. Don’t overheat it. In fact, don’t completely melt it. Heat it until it is soft.

By now the yeast is bubbling to the top of the cup. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and stir. The result will be a bowl of dough with an irresistible smell.

Allow the mix to rise in a warm place 30 minutes.

Beat 5 eggs with a whisk. Add the almond extract, vanilla extract, and nutmeg. Mash down the sponge of dough and add the egg mixture. This part looks yucky, but it is fun to mix.

Stir hard. Work in another cup of flour.

Continue to stir. Don’t taste this batter with all those raw eggs and yeast. Take my word for it. This stuff is delicious. The raw eggs could poison you, and the raw yeast could bubble in your belly.

Pour a thick coating—a generous amount—of flour onto your biggest board. Turn the sponge onto the floured board. Be careful not to spill it off the sides of the board.

Kneading is one of the most pleasurable experiences of cooking. With all that butter in the mix, you will find the dough easy to manage. Work enough flour into the ball of dough to make it firm enough to knead. To knead the batter, mash it flat approximately 1” thick and fold it over. Repeat and repeat. Each time you will work a small amount of flour into the mix. Knead, for about 10 minutes until the sponge is shiny.

Wash and butter the bowl. Use ½ stick of softened butter. Return the sponge to the bowl. Cover the sponge with a damp cloth and allow it to rise in a warm place until doubled in size again.

At this point, if you need to go eat, I strongly recommend the Grapevine in Donaldsonville, LA. The dough can be refrigerated for several hours.

When you and the dough are ready, turn it onto a floured board. Knead it enough to remove the air bubbles and press it into a flat shape about 1” thick. Using a pastry knife cut it into 1” strips. Shape into an oval shaped ring on a well-greased cookie sheet. Twist 2 ropes together to make the ring. Imbed the baby doll into the dough and forget where you put it. (Or if you prefer, wait until you have cooked the cake and tuck the baby doll inside from underneath.)

Soften the cream cheese and add the pineapple preserves to it, but do not mix them thoroughly. Place dollops of sour cream and pineapple between the 2 ropes of batter, and pull the batter over the mixture.

Beat the remaining egg and brush the cake with the mix. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top. Let it rise to double size one more time Bake at 325° in a preheated oven approximately 20 minutes. After working this hard, don’t go off and play with your computer. You don’t want to overcook it.

While the cake is cooking, work on the colored sugar. Place 2 tablespoons sugar in a small glass bowl. Add 2-4 drops green food coloring and stir until it is thoroughly mixed. Add more color if needed. Repeat the process for the yellow food coloring. It may be necessary to add more color to achieve a rich golden color. If you have purple food coloring, repeat the procedure. Otherwise, you will need to color 2 tablespoons of sugar red and add enough blue to make it purple.

Remove the cake from the oven. While the cake is still warm, brush the top with enough corn syrup to cover it. Sprinkle with colored sugar. Try to make the cake resemble a jeweled crown. A typical design is to color a third of the cake each color.