King Cake

King Cake

This traditional cake, made here with a rich brioche dough and stuffed with a decadent cream cheese filling, is drizzled with a buttermilk glaze and sprinkled with crunchy green, gold, and purple sanding sugars. 

This recipe just about had this Rookie in tears. For those of you that do not bake often and are not well versed in working with active yeast, I have a tip for you DO NOT BOIL THE WATER. I was told afterwards that hot tap water is warm enough. That whole 115 degree thing through this engineer for a loop. I ended up killing the yeast so it did not get "foamy" and in subsequent steps the dough did not double in rise...no matter how long I let it rise (and willed it to rise with my mind power). The filling is what really made this a "cake" and in the I believe the reason there was only one sliver of a slice left. Tara suggested this would make a great Sunday brunch coffee cake sans the colored sugar. You know the kids only wanted it BECAUSE of the colored sugar. Would I make this one again? Yes. because now I know it will work out in the end and not to kill the yeast!

For The Dough:

1 1/4-oz. package active dry yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp. light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 3/4 cups flour

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

8 tbsp. softened butter

For the Filling:

1 lb. cream cheese

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 tbsp. maple syrup

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Zest of 1/2 lemon

For the Icing:

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup buttermilk

Green, purple, and yellow sanding sugars

Make the dough:

1. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a hook, combine yeast, 1/2 tsp. of the sugar, and 1/4 cup water heated to 115°.
2. Stir to combine and let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.
3. Add remaining sugar, milk, light brown sugar, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk.
4. Beat on low speed until thoroughly combined, 1 minute.
5. Turn mixer off and add flour and salt.
6. Mix on medium speed until the dough just comes together.
7. Turn mixer speed to high and knead dough for 4 minutes.
8. Add the butter and continue kneading until dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, about 6 minutes.
9. Remove bowl from mixer, cover with plastic wrap
10. Let sit until doubled in size, 1 1/2–2 hours.

Make the filling:

1. Combine cream cheese, brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, maple syrup, salt, and zest in a large bowl and beat on medium speed of a hand mixer until combined; set aside.

Shape and Fill the cake:

1.  Punch down dough and turn it out onto a heavily floured surface.
2. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a large circle, about 1/4"-thick.
3. Cut a hole in the center of the circle and pull with your fingers to widen.
4. Place dollops of filling evenly around circle halfway between outer edge and inner hole.
5. Drape outside edges over filling and continue rolling outside inward until filling is covered, widening inner hole as needed, until dough covers the seam.
6. Transfer rolled dough circle to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet; cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour.
7. Heat oven to 350°.
8. Uncover cake and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
9. Let cool completely.

Make the icing:

1. Whisk together the sugar and buttermilk in a small bowl until smooth.

Finish the cake:

1. Transfer king cake to a cutting board or serving platter
2. Spread icing evenly over top of cake and sprinkle evenly with sanding sugars.