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Mardi Gras King Cake

February 11, 2015 by Joy the Baker 98 Comments

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Mardi Gras King Cake

[Y]’all… it’s TIME.

It’s time for the brioche-rich, cinnamon-swirled, colorfully sprinkled cake that is KING CAKE! 

It’s carnival time here in New Orleans.  That means that we’re celebrating life, pushing the limits of indulgence, dancing in the streets (most literally), catching as many beads as we can, throwing as many beads as we can, and eating King Cake… all before Lent next Wednesday.  We have a lot to fit into this next week!  

In New Orleans, which is a world in its own, we eat King Cake between very specific dates:  January 6th to honor the Three Kings and Fat Tuesday (the madness just before Lent).

What’s with all of the colorful cake madness?  History.  We need a history lesson.

“The King’s Cake accompanies festivities to commemorate the Epiphany, the day the Magi (interpreted by some to mean “kings”) arrived in Bethlehem and presented gifts to baby Jesus the twelfth night after his birth. The cake is a reenactment of Epiphany, with a bean or baby figurine baked into the cake to symbolize Christ and is eaten throughout Carnival festivities.”  – Three Men and a Baby: A Brief History of King Cakes 

I hesitated to make this cake at home this Mardi Gras.  King Cakes are absolutely everywhere in New Orleans and really… there’s no need to make one at home.  That would be like visiting Paris and staying indoors to make your own croissants. I’m also very new to New Orleans.  Who am I to make a dang King Cake?  Well… here goes nothing (/everything).  

•  Is that a plastic baby Jesus in my cake?  Kinda yea.   

•  10 things to know about Mardi Gras.  Yes… Mardi Gras is only a legal holiday in Louisiana.  It’s a different world.  

•  Mardi Gras Mix Tape Zing!

Mardi Gras King Cake

Here’s what we need:  flour and salt, milk, sugar and yeast.  The makings of a fine and good yeasted bread.  

What takes this treat from bread to cake is fat and flavor.  Lots of melted butter, five creamy egg yolks, ground cinnamon, and lemon zest!  

We’re also going to need a mega amount of sprinkles.  Purple for justice, green for faith, gold for power.  And a little plastic baby to sneak into the cake after baking.  Whomever gets the cake has to buy the next King Cake… and the circle never ever ends.  

If you’re not with us here in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I hope you make this cake and fill your kitchen with the spirit of this city.  It’s special.  It’s delicious!  It’s Mardi Gras!  

Mardi Gras King Cake

Sugar, yeast, and a spoonful of flour are added to warmed milk.  This is how we activate the yeast.  It’s like the starting line for  the yeast race.

Mardi Gras King Cake

Stir and let the yeast eat all the sugar and flour.  

Mardi Gras King Cake

Once the yeast mixtures comes alive to foam and froth, melted butter, egg yolks, and lemon are whisked in.  

Mardi Gras King Cake

This cake dough is rather soft and wet.  I brought the wet and dry ingredients together with a spatula before kneading it with a dough hook for 7 minutes.  

Leave the dough in the mixing bowl to rise.  No need to dirty another.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest in a warm, draft-free place for an hour and a half.  

Mardi Gras King Cake

Soft, fluffy, and risen!  

This is also where the filling comes together.  Softened butter, sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder.  We’re going to mix this into a spreadable paste for the inside of our cake. 

Mardi Gras King Cake

Dough is divided in two.

Mardi Gras King Cake

Rolled to about 20-inches long… the width the flexible.  Spread with buttery spice! 

Mardi Gras King Cake

Roll.  Cinnamon roll style.  

And roll the remaining half of dough!  Same same.  

Mardi Gras King Cake

The two rolls of dough are lined up and twisted together.  

Mardi Gras King Cake

Coaxed into a circle and placed on a lined baking sheet.  

Egg wash to make everything golden as ever.  I let the cake rest for about 30 minutes while the oven preheats.  This allows the cake the stretch out and relax before it gets to work in the oven. 

Mardi Gras King Cake

Baked up big and golden brown.  Once cooled the cake is frosted with a lemon vanilla glaze.  

Mardi Gras King Cake

Call your friends.  Call every single one of them.  You made a King Cake and that’s just about the best thing in the world. 

Soft and rich, cinnamon swirled and sweet glazed!  It’s like a fancy brioche coffee cake, with a tiny plastic baby inside, and regal festive sprinkles on top.  Don’t forget to to lift a corner of the cake and tuck the baby up inside! 

Happy Mardi Gras!  Le Bon Temps Roule! 

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Mardi Gras King Cake

★★★★★ 4.7 from 6 reviews
  • Author: Joy the Baker
  • Prep Time: 150
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 180
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Description

Buttery soft cinnamon swirl King Cake with lemon glaze and all the sprinkles.


Ingredients

Scale

For the Dough

  • 1 cup whole milk, warmed to about 110 degrees F
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 large egg, beaten for egg wash

For the Filling

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • big pinch of salt

For the Glaze

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • purple, green, and yellow sprinkles
  • a tiny plastic baby, to sneak in the cake after it’s baked

Instructions

  1. To make the cake, heat milk in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and whisk in the granulated sugar, yeast, and a heaping tablespoon of the flour, mixing until both the sugar and the yeast have dissolved. Let sit for 5 minutes all allow the yeast to foam.
  2. Once bubbles have developed on the surface of the milk and it begins to foam, whisk in the butter, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest.
  3. Place the flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the wet mixture all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir to combine with a spatula until combined. Mix the dough with the mixer and the dough hook for 5 minutes. The dough will be rather wet and sticky. That’s ok! The dough will form a smooth but loose ball. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to ensure that no flour pockets remain
  4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside in a draft-free place to let it proof, or rise, for 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in volume.
  5. While the dough rises, combine the filling by mixing all ingredients into a smooth paste.
  6. Once the dough has risen, punch it down and divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. One at a time, roll each piece of dough to about 24-26 inches long. The width will be about 6 to 8 inches.
  7. Spread with half of the buttery filling mixture and roll (cinnamon roll style) starting from the long end of the dough.
  8. Repeat with the second piece of dough. You’ll have two rolled ropes of dough. Press and roll each dough out another 2-inches or so to even the thickness of the strands.
  9. Line the ropes of dough up and twist together starting from the center. Bring the edges around and seal into a circle.
  10. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the circular cake on the baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes while the oven preheats.
  11. Brush cake lightly wish egg wash. Place in the oven for 30-37 minutes to bake until bubbling and golden brown.
  12. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before glazing.
  13. In a medium bowl whisk together powdered sugar, milk, lemon, and vanilla extract. The glaze should be thick but still pourable.
  14. Spread glaze over the cooled cake. Sprinkle with purple yellow and green sprinkles. Lift a corner of the cake and tuck the baby up inside for someone to find! Serve in big wedges with hot coffee. Happy Mardi Gras!


Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 10

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Reader Interactions

All Comments
I Made This
Questions
  1. Yordan

    February 15, 2023 at 9:28 pm

    I’ve been making this recipe for years, love it. Thank you Joy! One thing I’ve learned is that I don’t actually make a circle, I leave it straight. Since I am usually cutting it myself to bring to parties, doesn’t really matter how it bakes, and to me, allows for the cake to bake more evenly (from my experience) Then you can arrange the sliced pieces in a circle on the serving platter! Happy Mardi Gras y’all!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  2. Meg Jerit

    February 28, 2022 at 11:55 pm

    I love cooking with you, joy. thank you. *big wet eyes emoji*

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  3. Emily

    February 11, 2021 at 3:28 pm

    Hi Joy! I’ve made this recipe each Mardi Gras for the past several years and it’s delicious; however, I’ve always had trouble with the structural integrity of the cake. I’ve assumed I was over-proofing it, but watched really closely this year to make sure I didn’t and still had issues with the dough splitting and spreading (instead of rising) in the oven. I noticed that the recipe calls for quite a bit of yeast and was wondering if perhaps you intended to say 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons of yeast. Thanks for all your hard work in developing and sharing these great recipes!

    Reply
  4. Mel

    January 8, 2021 at 8:41 am

    I noticed that most of the people that commented, haven’t actually made this recipe… so a couple of things:
    (1) I got distracted and my dough over proofed very quickly. I should’ve probably punched it and rollout at the hour or hour and fifteen minute point… 90 minutes was too long, even in winter in my cold ass kitchen.
    (2) makes to “rolls” that are about 24 inches long and 6 inches wide was still not long enough to make a circular cake with a hole in the middle. The individual rolls probably needed to be closer to 30 inches but I didn’t realize that till I was braiding my 24 inch rolls- so my cake looks like more of a blob than anything.
    (3) for the frosting, the ratio of liquid to powder sugar will not give you a thick but pourable icing. I had to add nearly two cups of sugar more to get that consistency. My advice is add the lemon and vanilla extract to two cups of sugar and then slowly add milk till you get the right consistency- you prob won’t need the full 1/4 of milk.

    ★★★

    Reply
  5. Gigi

    December 31, 2020 at 1:41 pm

    Joy, Could I use this recipe to make an iced New Years pretzel?

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  6. Heather Anne Deis

    February 25, 2020 at 12:56 pm

    Made this last night for today’s Mardi Gras celebration. Turned out SO GOOD! Thanks Joy, cannot wait to take a baking class with you someday #dreams

    Love,
    Heather (nursedeis)

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  7. Catherine Kedala

    February 25, 2020 at 9:54 am

    My first attempt at this cake wasn’t the greatest…I don’t have a stand mixer, so I kneaded the dough by hand after mixing, and I think that was part of the problem. The other part, I think, I can attribute to the temp in my apartment being too cold for a good rise in 1.5 hours – the crumb was super tight and parts of the cake were dry while other parts were undercooked (near the cinnamon/sugar mixture especially). Does anyone else know why that may have happened? Could the uneven texture be a result of my (probably) inconsistent kneading, or not proofing enough, or…? I’d love to figure this out for the second try.

    Reply
    • Yordan

      February 16, 2023 at 8:29 am

      Typically the inside is moist from my experience making this. The outer is crusty bc of the egg wash. but it shouldn’t be “dry”, because it’s such a butter heavy recipe. Could be your timing, it’s usually pretty spot on for 38 minutes or so. Good luck baking!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
  8. J

    March 13, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    I’ve followed this blog for years and the Let It Be Sunday links with a cup of coffee between homework assignments is my weekly tradition. Now let me tell you about this King Cake. I may not be the best baker, or maybe I’m just a little rusty because the closest thing to cooking in my dorm is placing hummus and carrots on a plate instead of eating them straight outta the bag standing next to the mini fridge. I grew up having Manny Randazzo’s, but missed it this year and had this recipe bookmarked to make up for it. Day 1 of spring break was a blizzard, and I knew it was go time. LET ME TELL YOU. This cake came out beautifully golden and airy despite my numerous errors. Assuming the yeast was too slow (haha, no, it was just proofing), I doubled it. This sucker puffed up to twice it’s normal size and almost overran the sides of the sheet pan. Somehow my overzealous mixing turned the filling into a frosting like whip. Thinking it was just too airy, i stuck it in the microwave to try to melt it down a bit (SO WRONG) but somehow it solidified up enough to put in the cake. My glaze resembled very watery cottage cheese, and I added a load of extra corn starch to compensate. I used lemon juice from concentrate instead of fresh, despite having fresh lemons that I used for the zest (millenials, man, soo lazy) but it kinda worked. Couldn’t find yellow sprinkles so it’s a Christmas theme (still religious, so, vaguely related?) and in spite of it all, it tasted soooo good. Thank you, Joy, for bringing a little joy to my snowy corner of New England. The nostalgia kicked me right back to middle school and if you had a section for “recipes that taste like home”, this would be in it.

    Reply
  9. Julie

    February 14, 2018 at 7:47 am

    Hi Joy,
    Thank you for this recipe! I finally (after having it saved for years) made this and your rice and beans for my husband last night, and I was very popular :)
    He’s already requesting the cinnamon roll version for next year.

    Reply
  10. Mandy Jean

    February 11, 2018 at 12:20 pm

    I’m baking this right now! I must say, the dough was beautifully, buttery soft and fragrant with cinnamon and lemon zest. Seriously drool-worthy. A friend in Baton Rouge just mailed me a King Cake from Poupart’s Bakery and I’m interested to compare mine with the professional version. I can’t wait to dazzle my coworkers with this beaut on Fat Tuesday!

    Reply
  11. Lauren

    February 20, 2017 at 3:46 pm

    Hi Joy, I made this yesterday and it turned out PERFECTLY! Yeast always makes me nervous but it rose, rolled, braided, baked and tasted amazing. My mother was born and raised in New Orleans and I can’t wait to deliver her a piece of King Cake tomorrow. She is going to be very very happy :)

    Reply
  12. Kelsey Bailey

    February 9, 2016 at 10:18 am

    Hi! I was just wondering if you can tase the chocolate in the filling or the lemon in the icing? Or, are these ingredients added in for a different reason?

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      July 5, 2016 at 11:46 am

      You can definitely taste the lemon in the icing. The chocolate you may not be able to taste strongly, but it’s in there for color.

      Reply
  13. Lindsay

    February 3, 2016 at 5:37 pm

    Hellooo fellow Irish Channel Dweller! I am making this king cake tonight but thinking of changing up the filling to a clementine and cardamom cream cheese filing with similar icing (distracted by the alliteration there). Anything I should do differently to keep the filling intact?

    Also, do you ever put cinnamon in your dry mix for dough?

    Let’s be neighborhood baking buds. :)

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      July 5, 2016 at 11:51 am

      I’m not sure, that would be a totally different recipe. I would suggest maybe a different King Cake recipe. Good luck!

      Reply
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