Rheinlander Bakery’s King Cake
Kitchen Tested 
- Yield 12 servings
- Prep 15 mins
- Cook 45 mins
Between the brilliant colors and the hunt for the hidden trinket, it's easy to forget how delicious this cinnamon-swirled buttery cake is.
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 package (.25-ounce) active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water (105F to 115F)
- 1/8 teaspoon mace
- 1/8 teaspoon cardamom
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 eggs,beaten
- 1 Plastic trinket
- Filling:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- Glaze and Sugars:
- 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 tablespoon Water
- Green, gold and purple sugar, optional
Instructions
- Heat milk in a small saucepan until it steams; remove from heat. Add sugar, salt and butter, stirring until butter is melted. Let cool to lukewarm. In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water. Stir to dissolve and let stand until frothy. Add milk mixture to yeast mixture.
- Combine mace, cardamom and flour.
- Add eggs and 1 1/2 cups flour mixture to milk mixture; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add remaining flour mixture. Stir until dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead about 4 minutes, until a small piece of dough stretches, without tearing, to form a thin windowpane. If it tears, the gluten has not developed; continue kneading. Place dough in an oiled bowl. Loosely cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour in a warm room. Punch dough down, cover and refrigerate overnight.
- To prepare filling, combine sugar and cinnamon.
- Roll dough into a 6 x 24-inch rectangle. Spread butter over dough and sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Fold dough over the filling and roll up tightly, forming a long rope and leaving seam side down. Form roll into a circle, placing one end inside the other to hide the seam; pinch to seal. Place on a baking sheet and let rise, loosely covered with a cloth or plastic wrap, until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake cake 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. When cake has cooled, make a slit in the bottom and insert trinket, so it does not show.
- To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar and extracts. Drizzle in enough water, while whisking, to make a thin icing. Spoon icing over cake. Decorate cake with alternating bands of purple, green and gold sugars.
