Judy's NOLA King Cake

By cdboss

Ingredients

• TO DECORATE:
• 4-3/4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 packages instant yeast (such as RapidRise or Perfect Rise or bread machine yeast)
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 stick butter, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling*
• Dash nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 About 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• ICING
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 About 3 tablespoons liquid, including 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 tablespoon milk
• Food coloring (see above) or colored sugars

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from blog.nola.com

Preparation

Step 1

Make the cake: In a saucepan, heat milk, water and butter to 120 to 130 degrees. Check it with an instant-read or candy thermometer. If you overheat it, stir until it cools to 120 to 130 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
Add liquid mixture to the bowl and beat 2 minutes at medium speed with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, the egg yolk, 1/2 cup flour, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.
Beat on high speed 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining 3-3/4 to 4 cups flour to make a stiff batter. You may not need the entire 4 cups.
If you want to transfer the dough to another bowl, scrape it with a spoon into a bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate about 2 hours. (Yes, this is an unorthodox step to refrigerate the dough at this point, but it works with the instant rise yeast)
Line a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper.
Punch the dough down and place on a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into a roughly flattened rectangle. With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick, making a large rectangle roughly 24 inches long and 8 to 12 inches wide. Run a spatula gently underneath to make sure the dough is not sticking to the floured surface.
With a pastry brush, spread the melted butter lightly over the surface of the dough. Lightly and evenly sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon (from a grinder if you have one.)
Starting at one long side, roll the dough tightly into an even roll. Transfer the roll to the baking pan covered with parchment. Shape the roll into an oval, with the ends meeting on one side (not at the top or bottom). Pinch the ends together firmly to connect the ring.
Cover the cake with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cake rest on the pan for 5 minutes, then use two large spatulas to carefully remove the cake to a baking rack to cool completely before decorating.
If the cake is warm while decorated, the icing and/or sugar will melt.

ICING
You can pour alternating stripes of purple, green and gold icing over your cake. If possible, let one color set before applying another.
DECORATE WITH COLORED SUGAR
You will need purple, green and gold decorating sugars, plus the icing recipe, above
The trick to colored sugar is that icing must be used make it stick onto the bread. Plus, the white icing makes the sugar appear brighter.
The sugar has to be applied while the icing is still moist. Most king cakes are decorated in colored sugar stripes, which are really wedge shapes, smaller at the center of the cake and widening over the outer edge.
Make the icing recipe, above, and adjust consistency, if needed, to be pourable. Pour the icing all over the surface of the king cake. Working quickly with the pastry brush, slather the icing all over the cake.
Working in wedge shapes, sprinkle colored sugars over the icing, working all the way around the cake, alternating purple, green and gold stripes/wedges. Try to make the stripes even.
Let the icing and sugar set completely before moving the king cake carefully onto a serving tray.
*Alternately, you may sprinkle the dough with a mixture of of cinnamon-sugar (3 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon) prior to rolling it. This gives the cake more cinnamon flavor, but it also makes the cake more likely to separate as it is cut to serve. The powdered-sugar-and-ground-cinnamon option, above, makes the cake hold together better when cut.