A King of a Cake

A couple of days ago, I went looking for a recipe to recreate a bakery cake that was an awesome treat when I was a girl.  I found that recipe, but finding that one sent me on a search for a recipe to recreate another treat from the same bakery.  Finding the second one, I decided to see if my luck held and searched for a recipe for one more treat from the iconic bakery.  And I found it.

That last recipe was for a king cake, not the filled-cinnamon-roll-drenched-in-sticky-sweet-icing kind of king cakes that are available in all kinds of bakeries and grocery stores this time of year, but the kind of king cake I grew up eating.  If you grew up in New Orleans, before the era of everything good being "Ain't Dere No More," then you are probably familiar with McKenzie's Bakeries, and their traditional king cake.  It was really more a sweet bread decorated with color sugar, candied cherries, and sprinkles than a cake, but it was the default king cake for hundreds, possibly thousands of families.  Whenever there was a king cake at school, you hoped it would be the really good doughnut king cakes from Tastee Donuts, but inevitably, it was a McKenzie's large rectangle plain king cake, and fighting ensued as to which child would get the pieces with a cherry -- where the baby was usually tucked.

Living outside of New Orleans, king cakes of any kind are hard to come by, and here in Australia, no one has even heard of them.  So if I want a king cake, I have to make my own.  And what I wanted was the old fashioned brioche-style cake that always meant the carnival season was upon us.  After I found the recipe, I was off to the grocery to get everything I needed and today, I prepared the cake.

In the end, it was almost exactly the same -- minus the baby; I could not find a plastic baby in the stores.  Any differences between the cake of my memory and the one of my hands were probably down the the fact that the baker had trouble rolling the dough into a log, and the fact that bread flour is apparently not available here in Australia, and not breaking up the clumps of ground nutmeg before I mixed it in with the flour.

McKenzie's Traditional King Cake

Cake
½ cup warm water (100° to 110° F)
2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
2 teaspoons white sugar
4-5 cups bread flour
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
½ cup warm milk (105° to 115° F)
½ cup melted butter – cooled
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon anise extract
vegetable oil
1 plastic baby toy (optional)

Glaze and Decorations
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
candied cherries
colored sugar (traditionally purple, green and gold/yellow)
colored sprinkles

Dissolve yeast and 2 teaspoons sugar in ½ cup warm water in a small bowl. Mix well and let stand in a warm place 10 minutes. 

Combine 4 cups flour, ½ cup sugar, salt, nutmeg and grated lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. 

Add warm milk, melted butter, egg yolks, anise and yeast mixture to the mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until it lightly comes together, then increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the bowl, forms a ball, and climbs slightly up the dough hook. 

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead in remaining flour until dough is no longer sticky. Continue kneading until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. 

Place in a well-greased bowl and turn it to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set in a warm (85°), draft-free place, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1½ hours. 

Punch dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. 

Shape dough into a cylinder 30 inches long and 6 inches in diameter. Place dough roll on a lightly greased baking sheet. 

Bring ends together to form an oval ring, moistening and pinching edges together to seal. 

If using candied cherries, press into dough.

Press the plastic baby toy into the ring from the bottom so that it is completely hidden by the dough. 

Cover the ring with a towel and place in a warm, draft free place. Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. 

Preheat the oven 350° F.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

Make glaze by blending powdered sugar and milk until smooth and thin enough to paint on with a pastry brush.

Allow the cake to cool slightly. 

Using a pastry brush, lightly spread glaze over cake and dust wet glaze with colored sugar and sprinkles. 

Cut the cake into individual pieces and serve.