It is King Cake Time!

Today is Mardi Gras. To celebrate the occasion, I made a king cake (click on the link for the recipe). It was my first try and it turned out great! It tastes good and looks colorful. I will make it again. I have to be honest with you, I have never had a piece, but I have been told that it taste like the real one. Thanks to Jo for this great recipe. Nevertheless, we will have to make a trip to New Orleans to have a piece...

My First King Cake

Ready to rise for over 2 hours

• What Do I think about the overall  recipe?

Preparing the Dough and Filling:
- The instructions were overall clear.
- I only used 2 and half cups of flour for the dough itself and a little more kneading. I only made half of the recipe which should be 5 cups instead of 5 and half for the original recipe.
- I kneaded the dough for 8 minutes. After 5 minutes, I noticed that the dough was nice and soft. I kept kneading without adding extra flour because of the texture. I let the dough rise for 2 and half hours to double. Click here for tips about rising bread. I did not follow the instruction at all because I am like the result I get rising my dough in general.
- I only made half of what the recipe asked for and served at least 12 people.

Shaping the Cake and Baking:
-  I laid the dough on wax paper with no additional flour on the paper and rolled it. After spreading the filling evenly on the dough, I rolled it like a sushi and made sure that it was nice and tilleefd.
- I greased a big rectangular cooking pan and placed the rolled dough on it and shaped it as a crown. It is what the cake represents to me. After I made a circle and connected both ends by pinching both dough, I place a tin can (around ....inches wide) in the center of the cake. Be sure the apply some oil, butter or spray around half way through the can before placing it in the center. It would be easier to place it in the center and to remove it after it had rose for another hour before baking.
=> I did not think of taking a picture with the tin can but you have a picture of the cake below after rising. I used the same process as for rising the dough earlier.

Ready to be baked

- The cake baked for 25 minutes but it might need less time. Coming out of the oven, the cake looked dry and not very appealing. I think that I might use some milk or a bitten egg and brush it on the cake before baking to give it a nice golden and shiny color.
- I let the cake in the cooking pan because it was going to be my serving dish. However, if you want to serve it in a different pan wait several minutes for the cake to cool down before transferring it on cooling rack or a dish of your choice.

Ready to apply the frosting

Frosting:
- I followed the recommended ingredients in the instruction and it was not enough at all. I had to triple them to cover the cake.
- The instructions about how to frost cake were not clear to me considering that I had to sprinkle some colored sugar on it and had to stay on the cake. To frost the cake, you could either take a spatula and cover the cake with frosting (it is was I did) or take your bowl with your frosting and directly pour it on the top of the cake. If you decide to do it this way, I would recommend to have the cake on a cooling rack because a lot of extra frosting will run down from the cake. When the frosting and colored are set place it on your serving dish.
- Immediately after pouring the frosting sprinkle the colored crystal sugars in the following order: purple, green and yellow and several times. Make sure you have the same sequence of colors.


Describing the taste and texture:
I would describe the cake as a brioche-roulé. The cake tastes like a cinnamon roll because of the cinnamon-pecan filling and not too sweet even with the frosting. The level of sweetness fells just right. As for the texture, it is not as soft as a brioche but tender in the inside compare to the outside. I was afraid that the cake would be too much but I guess that I would have had a stronger brioche like texture if I would not have cut the recipe into two. No cutting ingredients by half for next time, we will enjoy the cake even more...

HaPpY mArDi GrAs!

Laetitia