King cake

King cake really belongs to Twelfth Night (Jan 5th), which is Epiphany, or the Three Wise men (the Magi, if you insist) arriving at Bethlehem. However, it seems to be eaten as a Christmas cake, or any time from Epiphany to Maundy Tuesday at start of Lent. I first met it in our local baker, as Bolo rei, a Portugese version. Then I heard of it as eaten at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Then I looked it up on Wikipedia... This is an attempt to reproduce the Bolo rei. The round is supposed to be the crown of the king and the crystallised fruit, the jewels.

For an alternative recipe and technique, see the recipe for , bottom of page.

Cooking process

• You can add all ingredients together, but I find it's better to make a "starter" with the yeast. Put a little warm milk in a cup, add a teaspoon sugar and the yeast, and stir to dissolve. It must be luke-warm milk (body heat or less) as hot water will kill the yeast. Not too much milk, or the bread will end up sticky, or you won't use all the starter! The starter helps because it dissolves the yeast, and also the warm milk starts the bread rising well. Yeast likes the sugar as well.
  
  
• Measure out the flour and sugar, and . Add the egg, and mix it in as far as possible. Gradually add the starter to the flour. (If not using a starter, put all the dry ingredients together first, then add egg and milk.) You can mix the dough by cutting it with a knife (ordinary eating knife, not a sharp one). That exposes the wet part of the dough inside, which you then stir to coat with the flour powder not yet added. Carry on until all flour is combined. You note that I don't say how much milk! It varies. You use enough milk until there is no dry flour. If you need more milk after using up the starter, then do so. But don't add too much or you will end up with a very sticky dough! There is quite a variation in acceptable amounts of milk (and stickiness), so don't worry too much about this.
  
  
• Some of the crystallised fruit is going on top, so put that to one side. Chop up the rest into small pieces. Add it into the dough.
  
  
• Knead the dough. Most people say put it on a well-floured surface, and gradually push part of it away from you, then fold up and push again. This is a small amount of dough, so I do it in my hands, pulling it out, then folding over and doing it again. The dough alters texture as you knead it, becoming less sticky. Kneading stretches the dough. It also makes sure that the yeast is evenly distributed, and warms up the dough with your hands, which helps the rising.
  
  
• Leave the dough to rise (or prove). There are conventionally two provings, but you can get away with just one (which is quicker!) If you want to do this, skip this step and go to the next. First proving, leave the dough in a bowl (cover with a cloth in case of flies!) until it doubles in size (not too easy to judge with a volume of dough!) The authorities say "Put in a warm place". However, dough will rise in a cool place - it just takes longer! Using a starter certainly helps this stage. Once the dough is risen, knead to dough a bit more (this is called "knocking back").
  
  
• Pull the dough out into a sausage shape and bend it round into a circle. put it on a baking tray ready for baking. Put something round, small and oven-proof in the middle, to make sure that the middle hole stays a hole. Decorate the top with the rest of the crystallised fruit. Leave to rise again.
  
  
• Put in the oven to cook.
  
  
• When done, it should sound hollow underneath when tapped. Put it on a rack to dry.
  
  

My comments

• The recipe that I worked from was twice this amount (and another recipe was four times the amount!) I didn't know if it would work, so didn't want to waste too much ingredients!
  
  
• Some of the fruit got a bit burnt when I did this. Perhaps a lower heat would be better, although the fruit didn't taste burnt, just caramelised.
  
  
• I put some cinnamon in, as it's a Christmas spice, but the original recipes didn't mention it.
  
  
• The original recipes did mention that the fruit should be soaked in port! Or sweet sherry, or brandy. I tried it with sherry.
  
  
• A King cake should really have something inedible in it. One tradition is a dried broad bean (a fava bean). Another, northern European tradition is an almond. There can also be a toy (which won't melt or be toxic!). Wikipedian gives various traditions. There are forfeits or advantages if your slice contains the piece. In England, the person with the bean was the Lord of Misrule. Twelfth Night sounded like quite a party, and the Lord of Misrule's job was to make it so!
  
  

© Jo Edkins 2020 -