King Cake
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus 2½ hours resting time
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:12 servings
- 2¼teaspoon (1 package) active dry yeast
- ¼cup warm milk
- 1cup plus 6 tablespoons bread flour
- 1tablespoon honey
- ¾cup cake flour
- 2large eggs plus 1 yolk
- 2tablespoons sugar
- ½teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼teaspoon almond extract
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for greasing bowl
- ¼cup unsalted butter
- 1cup pecans, chopped
- ½cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1large egg
- 1tablespoon milk
- ¼cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1teaspoon fresh lemon juice, plus more if needed
- 2cups confectioners’ sugar
- Purple, green and gold dusting sugars, for decorating
- King cake baby
For the Cake
For the Filling
For the Egg Wash
For the Frosting
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)
395 calories; 17 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 57 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 38 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 191 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Make the Dough
- Step 1
In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve yeast in warm milk along with 6 tablespoons bread flour and the honey. Combine until smooth, about 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise 20 minutes or until doubled.
- Step 2
Add ¾ cup bread flour, the cake flour, the eggs, the sugar, the cinnamon, the extracts and the salt to the dough and combine with paddle attachment on low. Switch to a dough hook and knead for 2 minutes on medium speed.
- Step 3
Turn speed to medium high and add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, to dough, allowing each pat of butter to dissolve into dough before adding the next tablespoon. Mix until dough becomes a slack, tacky ball. If dough doesn’t come together, add up to ¼ cup more bread flour.
- Step 4
Once the dough is kneaded, transfer into a greased bowl and cover. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled.
Make the Filling
- Step 5
Melt butter over low heat. Add sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Remove from heat. Mix in pecans. Set aside.
- Step 6
Line a baking sheet with parchment. Lightly flour a large work surface with remaining bread flour (if you used ¼ cup of bread flour in step 3, use more). Roll out dough into an approximately 6-inch-by-24-inch rectangle, ¼-inch thick.
- Step 7
Spread filling along the length of the rectangle and tightly roll so you have a rope of dough about 2 feet long and 2 inches thick. Pinch seam, and transfer dough to the baking sheet, forming dough into a ring with the seam side down. With wet fingers, pinch ends of dough together. It is fine if the ring looks uneven. Cover dough with plastic wrap or damp towel and let rise about an hour. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Make the Egg Wash
- Step 8
Whisk egg and milk with a fork until combined. Once dough has risen, use a pastry brush to spread egg wash thinly over the dough.
- Step 9
Bake cake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove cake from oven and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes. While warm, carefully flip ring over. Using a pairing knife make a small x in the bottom of the cake and insert the king cake baby, if using. Flip cake upright and let cool on a rack.
Make the Frosting
- Step 10
While cake cools to room temperature, use a stand mixer on low to whisk condensed milk, lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add more lemon juice if frosting is too thick.
- Step 11
Once cake has cooled, frost using a pastry bag or spatula until the cake is covered. Working quickly, sprinkle iced cake with dusting sugars in an alternating pattern of purple, gold and green. Cake is best served fresh, but will keep covered in plastic for a day or two.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Claire Forbes
I want to point out that this is not a traditional recipe- I don't know what's up with the flours, no nuts go in the filling, just cinnamon, sugar, and butter. Also, as a New Orleanian, King Cake is best when the filled dough is braided, not rolled up. It also needs orange and lemon zest in the dough. Also, I used that icing recipe two days ago- you're going to want to use half the can of sweetened condensed milk to get it to the right consistency, and extra lemon juice to taste.
Rich on the Chesapeake
I recommend adding 1/3 cup of drained brandy soaked raisons to the filling. That said : When your child informs you the night before that she signed up to bring in a King Cake the next morning, don't stay up making one from scratch, do this: pre-heat the oven, run out and buy 3 rolls of pre-made cinnamon rolls, fit them around a ring pan, and dye each frosting pack a different color. None will be the wiser.
RJW
All the King Cakes which I’ve ever eaten (and they all come from a bakery in New Orleans) had lots of nuts - and sometimes raisins in the filling!
bg
Nice recipe, with 1 change for me - dropped the temp for the last 15 min so it wouldn't get too dark or dry & only baked for 25 min, total. Could also tent for the last 15-20 min. Agree w/others to up liquid in glaze: more lemon, or just water if you don't want it too lemony. Citrus zest in the filling is delightful. Braid if you can - looks the part & distributes the filling nicely throughout the bread. Laissez les bon temps roulez & merci, Sara Bonisteel!
Sara Bonisteel
You should be able to freeze the dough after step 4. Just punch it down before you put it in a zipper-lock bag in the freezer. You'll need to let the dough thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then come to room temperature before starting in on the filling steps.
gary schatz
It is very good but I think you need to double the filling. Either double it or leave it out otherwise it is a bit of tease!
Suzy
Do you have directions for those without a kirchen aid mixer and dough hook? I'm old school- I only have a hand mixer.
Erin
Please add weight measures to the recipe. I sifted the flours and leveled off, as I usually do to avoid excess dry ingredients. This still came out dry. I might drop the temp to 350, too. That's probably 1TB lemon juice in the frosting, not tsp. I'd recommend applying the frosting, when the cake is still a bit warm for easier spreading and to help the dusting sugar adhere. As is, the frosting is a bit too thick and sweet for me. I'll stick with Joy the Baker's recipe for now.
jase7891
I really liked the brioche type dough. When I rolled it out flat, I cut it into 3 large rectangles that I filled, rolled, and then braided before making a ring. The lemon juice in the frosting is a nice touch.
Chris
"Remove cake from oven and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes. While warm, carefully flip ring over. Using a pairing knife make a small x in the bottom of the cake and insert the king cake baby."
I put the baby in at 10 minutes after pulling out.
grace
I hadn't realized that king cake is less like cake, more like a bfast pastry. It reminded me of hot cross buns. I really liked the slightly tart icing but I used quite a bit more lemon juice thank listed to get it spreadable.
Sara Bonisteel
I still dream about the McKenzie's king cake.
ab
yum
Cynthia
Mine was very dark and I took it out early. I’ll reduce the time or temperature if I make it again. Frosting and filling saved it from the over baking.
Elizabeth
I made this for our church shrove Tuesday celebration tonight and it was a hit. I made four double recipes and doubling worked well. I would definitely make it again.
Peanut
I had a heck of a time getting the butter to dissolve with the dough hook so I put the mixer back on. I added about a cup of flour (1/2 wheat 1/2 cake) to get it to a "tacky" state. Let it rise overnight. The filling in the recipe was plenty, I could barely get it pinched together. Transferring the circle of dough to the baking sheet was tricky! I might put it on the parchment paper 1st next time. Used cream superfine sugar for scm. Without all the colors of sugar I tried dyes which look odd.
Ashley L
Was delicious and looks gorgeous! Was a nice stand-in for the king cakes we usually order from New Orleans. It is a pretty time intensive process to make it, IMO. And I used much more sweetened condensed milk (1/2 the can) and a tbs of lemon juice instead--gave the icing the perfect consistency. Just used a spatula to ice the cake--no need to bother with a pastry bag.
Lea
This turned out great, and also tasted great. There were a couple things that seemed off however: The frosting consistency was way off. I ended up adding milk and extra lemon juice to get consistency correct. Next time I will just add more milk, I found the frosting too lemon-y by the time it was spreadable. I think I will also lower the heat toward the end or try tenting it as others have suggested. I found that the top got quite brown even after the minimum time of 25 minutes that it suggests.
KBLJohnson
Best king cake I’ve ever had. I’m not usually a big fan, but I really like this one! The pecans are a really delicious touch. I mixed a bunch of plain milk into the frosting to get it thin enough, and just used the leftover egg white for the egg wash. Fun day with my daughter!
Liz
You can make sugar babies with Lego people molds, a much more delicious and eco choice than a plastic baby.
David Hard
Ok. I’ve made this twice now. Once last year, and again this year. I find this king cake to be really dry. It definitely tastes like a king cake. But it’s nowhere near as soft as king cakes I’ve eaten growing up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Is anyone else’s cake coming out really dry? I get a really nice rise, the dough is nice and workable, I bake it for the minimum time according to recipe. But man, it is a very dry king cake. Any thoughts?
Nan
Great as directed, I might add a big more filling next time, it tasted so good.
Anthony
Made this a couple times. Very tasty. However, the dough is very wet and breaks when I roll it. Any tips? Thanks.
E
I used just regular all purpose flour and this still turned out really well. I know it makes it look kind of boring, but I skipped the icing and just dusted with powdered sugar. It was perfect as a not-too-sweet dessert, would have been too sweet for my taste with an icing.
PhilippaQ
Just started making this. I’m at step one and there is no way this entire recipe uses 1/4 cup of warm milk as the total liquid. Was this supposed to be 1 and 1/4 cups milk? Unfortunately I blindly started and now have a stiff wad of 6 tbsp bread flour, yeast, honey and 1/4 c milk which is supposed to magically double in size to which I then add more flour?
JDM
This was wonderful & easy! I'd consider doing this in place of other 'tea ring' recipes. I'm not a cin fan so I liked this filling better - brown sugar, butter & pecans. The spice is in the dough. Replaced cin with cardamom & cpl pinches of Vietnamese cin, only. I agree with others - add citrus zest (I used both lemon and orange) to the filling. I would finely chop the pecans. Mine were kind of chunky and they pierced the dough so some leakage. My NOLA neighb was thrilled when I delivered this!
Katie K
This was very easy to make and the flavor was good but I agree with other commenters that it’s a bit dry. I would use more butter next time to try and help with this.
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