This recipe was very good, I made it for my family and took one to work and they were both big hits! I grew up in New Orleans and it was delicious! I used cream cheese frosting (like for carrot cake) in one and german chocolate frosting (evaporated milk, coconut, pecans, etc) in the other instead of the recommended filling. I also spread the filling in the middle and folded the dough in half instead of rolling it over itself. Definitley recommended!
I make several of these every year. Everyone loves them. I add a little more flour to the dough than the recipe calls for. The icing I use is a basic powdered sugar, vanilla, butter and milk one.
it took more work than i originally thought, but totally worth it! I combined this recipe (dough and baking time) with one on bon appetit (custard filling and icing) and it was great!
Great for Mardi Gras themed book club! Special thanks to Laur5270 from Feb 01, 2010 as I didn't know how I would get dough to rise in cold winter months, but the 2 hours in the microwave with a cup of boiled water worked great. I made 1 cake (1/2 recipe) and put it in a bundt pan and it looked a little more elegant. I cut a little off the bottom to level it out. Wilton has a 4 sprinkle package which had the perfect green, yellow and purple (plus pink) which made decorating easy.
Hmm...I followed this recipe exactly and came out with a dry, overcooked cake. If you're going to make this...try 350 instead of 375. I'd also double the filling ingredients, and roll the dough out in a much larger rectangle to facilitate more filling! Not a 5 star king cake as is...sorry.
I was in charge of supplying a king cake for Mardi Gras this year at work, and felt like trying to make one rather than drive across town to get one from the bakery (which I thought was nothing special). Normally the king cake stays around all day at my work, but this one was gone within a couple of hours, and people that normally wouldn't eat king cake ate some because it was homemade. They especially loved the rich flavor of the bread, and that it wasn't overly sugary (I went easy on the icing and did not double the filling). I made this twice. Both times I cut the recipe in half (works great if you don't need to feed an army), and used a bread machine for most of the initial work, and did the shaping and final rise as normal. Since it's cold in the winter where I live and room temperature was not enough to raise the bread, I preheated the oven to its lowest temperature, then turned it off, placed a mug of boiling water on the edge of the cookie sheet the bread dough was on, and let the bread rise inside the warm oven. (For me, rising is normally the most difficult part of making yeast bread, and it worked great!) I also brushed egg wash on top (just beat an egg with a tiny bit of milk or water) before baking to give it a nice golden color. This recipe was a great success, and I would even consider making it when it's not Mardi Gras because it's that tasty. Thank you for the awesome recipe.
This was fun to make. I left out the raisins. It was easy to make and everyone loved it!! I think I'll make this every year!
Really tasty. I've never had king cake. I love the sweet bread taste. I'll be using this every fat tuesday.
The best ever, and easy to make. I make this recipe for church mardi-gras festivals (12 to 16 at a time) People rave about them. Jo has a great recipe here.
Great cake! We added some vanilla, milk, and butter to the icing to give it a better flavor.
This is sensational! Wonderful flavors and authentic as you can get! Was a big hit with friends. One lady, who lived in New Orleans, says this brought back good memories of Mardi Gras. And yes, I did keep one cake for myself. :)
I did have to tweak as other readers did. I tried 3x until I had it perfected. I did cut the recipe in half to put in my breadmaker. To make one loaf, I reduced the filling to 75% of what the recipe called for.(in other words 1.5 of the half amount). BIG BIG key: I cooked at 330 degrees for about 25 minutes--it was way overdone at the original temperature. I did use ramekin in the center and I have since read a small coffee can would work..probably better I switched up the icing as recommended for a full recipe (or halved for one cake)2 c. powdered sugar, 1 T. butter melted, 1 t. clear vanilla, 1 t. lemon juice, 3 T. milk (plus add extra milk as needed to get to the right consistency. This one turned out perfect and was devoured!
I doubled the filling and my co-workers who have been to New Orleans said that I nailed it!
This was the first time I have baked a King Cake, instead of ordering one. This was yummy. Bread did seem a little dry even taking it out five minutes early. Next time I want to double the filling or add cream cheese.
I've made this a few times and it's always come out pretty tasty. However, I do make changes to the recipe. I usually add about 1 tsp vanilla extract to the dough and sometimes cinnamon. For the filling I remove the pecans and raisin (seriously, who puts raisins in king cake?) and add a pack of cream cheese instead, and usually a little nutmeg. Without the cream cheese it's come out a bit dry though. I'm dissatisfied with the icing. I've tried it with vanilla and almond extract but I want something less runny. However, it's a good base recipe if you live out of state and have a craving for King Cake. :)
My eight-year-old didn't want to share it, it was so good. I have made this two times and today was my third. I have had to knead this by hand, so it is about time to purchase a Kitchen Aid. Great recipe. Followed exactly as written.
I cut this recipie in half (only had one egg in the house), kept the original amount of filling and added 1/2 a block of cream cheese. It came out DELICIOUS! Gone in about 15 minutes.
Pretty good! Definitely made a pleasant change from the typical dessert.
This was my first attempt at making a King Cake. A coworker had mentioned this cake on numerous occasions so I decided to make this for him. He grew up with this tradition so I was very pleased when he told me it was excellent and reminded him of years long gone. Everyone at work rated this 4 1/2 to 5 stars....great recipe!
I made this for my Bunco party. It was a very easy and good recipe. I did double the filling because I felt that 1/2 the called for amount was too little for both cakes. I also doubled the glaze. Note about the glaze. If you apply the glaze when the cake is hot you need to move fast and put the colored sugar on quickly or the glaze will make a crust and the sugar will not stick. I will make this again. I want to try it with a cream cheese filling. Yum!!!
This was a great recipe, I added 2 tablespoons of a really good quality cinnamon and substituted the filling listed for a simple black cherry puree and it was fantastic.
OMG- So, we all hate those people who alter recipes to the point where they can't even be compared to the original... that being said... I halved this recipe, since I didn't want to make 2 cakes. I'm also glad I read the instructions all the way through, to see it does in fact make 2 cakes. I did NOT half the filling though... in fact I added a first cream cheese layer ( 1 block of room temp cream cheese w/ 1/2 cup powdered sugar, in stand mixer for maybe a bit too long... yummy!) Also, I have bread machine yeast... I did have the required 1 packet of active dry yeast on hand, but, have not had luck in the past, so I used 1 1/2 tsp of bread machine yeast, let rise for 1 hour for the first go (did the dough in the stand mixer, wound up using close to 3 cups of all purpose flour) let it rise for another 45 minutes on the second go around, after rolling out and filling in an oven I had already heated to 200 degree F for the colored sugar... it rose beautifully... after maybe 30-45 minutes I had to pull it out of the oven at that point so I could pre-heat it to 375. Cooked it for 30 minutes... I did put an upside down custard cup in the center that I sprayed with PAM... good thing too... since I probably went a bit overboard with the yeast... still. So Good. The end result? I've had King Cake, during Mardi Gras, in Louisiana and this... is infinitely better. Of course I did basically quadruple fill it... I will try again with less filling, if only for the non nut lovers.
It's Mardi Gras today and this King Cake was a big hit. First time for me...I'm a New Englander!! No raisins, 1 1/2 times the filling and twice the glaze. It's a keeper! Thanks Laur5270 for the great tips!
Halved the cake recipe, but kept the rest the same delicious! No raisins either.
I made this the first time according to the recipe except without nuts and soaking raisins in boiling water for 20 min prior to use. The second time I turned it into cinnamon rolls. It made 16 rolls. Taking away the 4 end rolls, the remaining twelve fit perfectly into a greased 9x13 pan. The other four fit into individual ramekins. I baked it for 350 for about 30 minutes, until even the center rolls were golden brown.
This was a great recipe! I made this with my 4 year old and she had a blast working with the dough. I think I would add more filling though the next time we make this.
This is my second time making this recipe and it is excellent. I leave out the raisins and nuts since I am serving it to kids at a playdate but everyone loves this recipe and last year I didn't even have enough leftovers to let my husband taste it!
Just made this and it was delicious! I made one with the cinamon and sugar filling but added the cream cheese filling that was suggested in another review. In the other I put the cream cheese filling and a strawberry filling. I also prepared the dough in my breadmaker and it turned out perfect. I did let it rise in a bowl though cause I knew my breadmaker wouldn't be big enough. In fact I had to help it mix a little bit since there was a lot of dough in there and it had trouble mixing the top portion, but it kneaded fine. I did not add the nuts and raisins because those are not typical king cake ingredients. I'm a Louisianian so I am even more impressed with this recipe because I have had many, many king cakes and this is the best one I have had and my hubby agreed! I also cooked it at 350 for about 20 minutes as well.
great recipe.. Cook at 350 degrees (per the video) and not 375 degrees as written above. Much more bread-y than cake-y but very delicious. also, a lot of fun to make with kids. we used food coloring for the frosting as we didn't have colored granulated sugar and it looked amazing. that is all. enjoy.
Great recipe! Thanks for posting it. (I also was an anti-raisin-in-King-Cake person though)
Oh My Goodness!! This is DEVINE!! I just made it and could not wait till morning! This tastes so good! My husband loves it too! So do the kids! You SO have to try it!
I made 2 of these...one for my daughter to take to school and one for home. As far as the dough goes...it was wonderful to work with. It baked well too. I thought that the finished product was a bit on the dry side though (perhaps spreading softened butter on the dough before sprinkling the sugar/nut mixture. Also, I thought it was a bit "yeasty" in flavor and smell...perhaps it was the type of dry yeast I used though?? I would definitely make it again with just a few "tweaks" to take care of the areas dryness and over yeasty flavor. Overall a good recipe though!
This was really good and just like I remember from living in NOLA. Next time I will probably add a bit of vanilla to the frosting. I also recommend using the golden raisins for this. Final note: this makes a lot. Easily serves 24+.
Delicious! I made 1/2 the recipe since I only wanted 1 cake. It took some time, but was worth it.
I rarely give such a low rating, but after the amount of work that went into this, I was very disappointed when I checked the first cake with 5 minutes left to bake, and the outer surface was burned beyond being edible. I followed all other instructions to a tee, but something was clearly off. Guess I'll hope the second cake goes better- I'll certainly check it sooner!
Perfect recipe.......both cakes came out amazing and the dough was perfect to work with......will definitely make again....
This recipe is wonderful! I did a couple of practice runs before the big day--Fat Tuesday--and tried several of the variations people suggested. One tip on adding a cream cheese mixture: this turns out much better if you contain the cream cheese in one band towards the beginning end of your rolling of the dough. I had some issues with it seeping out during baking when I tried spreading it over the entire dough rectangle. Also, don't snip the cakes with cream cheese filling (or at the most just give the dough some tiny slices with a sharp knife and don't cut in as far); it looks prettier without the seeping filling!
Loved it!! Had to use golden raisins due to sons nut allergy-but flavor was just as good. Just came back from New Orleans and wanted to try one for myself. Recipe was easy to follow. Thanks!!
this is so easy to do and taste great. I am making 16 loafs for a fudraiser and it hasnt been hardly any work.
What a great presentation this made! Delicious too. I followed several reviews and lowered oven temp. to 335 F. I twisted the 2 rolls together and it came out the size of a sheet cake once it doubled. Definately needs more filling than called for. 5 stars if you double the filling, as is there were several areas that were just dry cake, no filling. Will definately make again! I hid the toy "baby" with a whole nutmeg to be sure it was seen. A huge hit with the kids!
Huge hit at our home! Made it with Cindy's Jambalaya for a perfect Fat Tuesday meal. I made it in our bread machine till step 3. Yes it does make more than one. In fact I made I large and 2 small choosing to give 2 away with a note "Laissez les bons temps rouler". I did forget to pick up a toy baby....and baby Jesus was tucked away in the attic. :))) ps I added a bit of vanilla to the frosting.
This recipe made a beautiful king cake. It was really delicious, but I'd probably use less nutmeg as I found it a bit strong, but that's just a personal taste - otherwise I loved it.
My kids and I thought this was very good! My oldest helped me roll out the dough, and fill it, then roll it back up. I used milk instead of water in the frosting. Made the colored sugar by mixing a drop of food coloring with about a TBSP of sugar. A very festive looking cake!
Really yummy! Not too sweet. I used a whole almond for the "baby." I will make this as a coffee cake through the year. I cut the recipe in half, as there are only 3 of us, and it's keeping nicely in my covered cake dish.
As a Louisiana native, I adore this recipe! I omitted the raisins and nuts out of personal preference but added creolemama's cream cheese part on top of the brown sugar mix. Perfect! Thanks so much for posting!
Easy to make and is really good. I doubled the filling as suggested in the reviews. I baked the first cake 20 minutes instead of 30, it was a little hard. I baked the second cake only 15 minutes, until it was golden brown. It was soft like a cinnamon roll. Both were good but I preferred the softness of the second cake.
Made this last year for the first time, came out wonderful! Definitely will come back to this recipe in the future!
I really enjoyed this recipe. I made it as posted, except I left out the raisins b/c my daughter doesn't like them. I wish I had seen the reviews about cooking it at a lower temp. 30 mins at 375 was definately too long. Next time I will probably add some more filling since that was everyone's favorite part!
We had our annual pool theme party over the weekend, this year was Mardi Gras...the cake was a hit. I had scaled it for 40..the cakes were huge, however great tasting...I omitted the raisins, and increased the Pecan a bit. Everyone got right into finding the baby or NOT..it was a lot of fun, great for the theme party!
this was ok, but more bready than king cake should be. king cake is fluffier and more pastry like. the filling is fine. if you are looking for authentic style king cake, i wouldn't go for this one. true, king cake recipes vary depending on region of Louisiana and family, but this one is not at all to my preference.
This turned out awesome and was super easy I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to knead it. Brought it to the Mardi Gras party at work.
Really easy, good, and fun to make and I already made the cake twice in one week:)
Two cakes are done and look great. I added cream cheese to the filling mixture and eliminated the butter. I substituted dried cherries for the raisins. So yummy.
This was my first time making a king cake and also my first time even trying one so I wasnt sure what to expect. It came out very good. Kind of like a cross between a honey bun and cinnamon roll. I did leave out the raisins and also cut the recipe in half to just make one cake. Very good!
I have used this recipe now for 2 years, and it is wonderful. One of the girls I work with was raised in New Orleans and said that this recipe is the best she has ever had. She even asked me to make it for her this year to take to her families Mardi Gras party and they all agreed it was the best. They said it is less dry than the ones they commenly see in New Orleans and had more filling.
This was pretty good, but 30 minutes was too long for some reason and one of my cakes burned. I made the second cake with the leftover cinnamon sugar but added a bar of cream cheese. I liked this version much better than the first.
Fabulous! Like others, I cut the recipe in half. Now I wish I hadn't because it disappeared so fast! No changes or tweaking needed on this one. Absolutely perfect. Nothing more to say that hasn't been said already. Definitely a keeper.
I've never had King Cake before and i HATE baking but i made this and it came out really well. I halved the dough recipe but kept the filling recipe the same and made two smaller cakes. It was really good. My family loved it and my daughter loved decorating it. Next time i think i will just make one large cake. Thanks for the great recipe.
I made this for the first time and it came out amazing. This was my first attempt using yeast. The "bread" cake is delicious and it makes a great presentation. It will definitely become a tradition in our home. I used raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts and apricot preserves to the filling. Amazing!
Yummy! I did cherries instead of raisins because we don't like raisins. net time I would double the filling and possibly bake in a bundt pan.
Bread machine users be careful! I have a 2 pound bread machine and thought I would use the dough cycle. I should have watched it more carefully, as I ended up with a huge mess in my bread machine. I recommend cutting the recipe in half unless you plan to spend at least half an hour cleaning out the inside of your machine. The king cake is absolutely delicious. This is the first time I have eve tried it. I will make it again, but will skip the machine and do it by hand.
This was great even though I forgot to add the butter to the dough part. oops! Tasted like a less rich cinnamon roll and is definitely something I can see myself making again. Thanks!
Wow! This was amazing. I took some to a friend and she made me promise she didn't have to wait another year for mardi gras to come around before she got more. My son doesn't like pecans so I had used almond meal in place of them, and it was incredible. On one of them, I added almond extract to the icing. The only thing odd was the cooking time. I cooked one at a time rather than together as they wouldn't fit together in the oven, and the first one burned as it only took the second one 15 minutes to bake. But I'll definitely be making this for special breakfasts as well as fat tuesday.
Absolutely amazing cake! The filling is too die for and I replicate it in cinnamon rolls. Made it for coworkers and the whole thing was gone that day! Wonderful way to celebrate Fat Tuesday.
Best results I've had making a King Cake! I got rave reviews and requests for the recipe. I did not add the raisins due to familial preference. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I found this to be a super receipe, will be making again. Since my family does not care for raisens I used chopped dates instead. Was really good.
My family RAVED about this! I made as directed, with the exception of the filling. i candied some pecans and added them to the cinnamon sugar mixture listed in the recipe for one king cake, and for the second one i whipped up a cream cheese filling. I also added sour cream to the frosting to cut that weird powdered sugar taste/texture. I've lived in Louisiana all my life and have probably eaten hundreds of pieces of king cake in my lifetime, but we all agreed that this was the best we've ever had!
I haven't made this but I intent to. I must say based on Jo's description the baby isn't baked in the cake. It's pushed in from underneath to keep the location concealed. Please don't bake a plastic baby in the cake! lol thank you for sharing the recipe with us!
Made this last year for my employees and they loved it! Making it again this week by request. After living in La. and having the real thing every year I wasn't sure it would be "as good" but this is a great recipe. (Making a few alterations to filling) VERY proud to serve this King Cake!!!
Temperature is way too high, bottoms were BLACK. I bake bread daily, nothing wrong with my oven. From the other reviews, I'm not the only one. Won't use this recipe again or any of this persons.
First my modifications (strictly for my taste preferences - it baked fine as written): I cut the nutmeg in half, I also cut the butter in the filling in half, and left out the raisins. Second a suggestion: Leave off the icing, let it sit for a day or two (the hardest part) so it gets a little stale, then make french toast out of it. Yummy! If you are planning to do this I would recommend not forming it into a ring, it is easier to slice if straight.
This recipe is perfect as written. Im sure it would be great to add the cream cheese filling but the recipe is still wonderfull and sweet
Made this for the first time this year, it was super easy and super tasty! It was gone in about 5 min! The only thing I did different (on accident) I forgot the raisins. and it was so perfect that way I probably wouldn't add them next time.
This isn't the worst Kings Cake I have ever had!!!! FOllowed the recipe exactly, what a flop. Don't know how it got the rating it has!
This is probably the best king cake i've ever had! I made on last night and it tastes just like home
A little too sweet for my tastes, the dough was perfect though. Maybe the frosting + the colored sugar was just too much? Kind of tasted like a really sweet cinnamon roll. I used my bread machines dough setting to do the rising and the kneading.
Sadly this dough is not true to the light, puffy, and airy King Cakes I remember from back home. Taste is there but texturewas not.
This was labor intensive but excellent! It would make an ideal coffee cake, and it would be perfect for a brunch to feed a lot of people. I used baking raisins, so they were super plump.
This is now my go to recipe for King Cake. It was so pretty and it sure didn't last long. I served it with gumbo at my Mardi Gras party. Thanks for posting!
I omitted all purpose flour to bread flour. Added little more filling than it required. I made 4 cakes not 2 cakes. Most important thing is I reduced baking temp to 350 and baked for about 17 minutes. It came out perfect not over baked.
I couldn’t stop eating it when I made it, sneering in bites late in the night! I love the idea of pie fillings, gives you more ideas to work with and also presentation ideas.
My family and I love this recipe. I omitted the raisins, nuked the milk in the microwave with the butter for about a minute on 70% power, and kneaded the dough in my kitchen aid instead of doing it by hand.
I loved this recipe. It was enough to make two medium sized cakes and friends and family loved it.
I haven't made a king cake before but this is a great recipe. I read the recipe thourghly and watched the video. The video says to preheat the oven to 350 and the written recipe says 375.... So I'm not sure which it's supposed to be. I followed the written recipe and 30 minutes at 375 was way too long. I almost burned it! It was done at 20 minutes. So maybe 350 for 30 minutes or 375 for 20 minutes. I halved the cake and doubled the filling like other reviews suggested and halved the icing as well. I made colored sugar (check this site for recipe but basically a bit of sugar with a couple drops of food coloring as I didn't have any sprinkles in the decorative colors. You could always dye the icing instead of using sugar if you wanted too. But YUMM. This recipe is delicious. I did leave the raisins out of the filling also as I have never seen a king cake with them.
I made this recipe and it came out perfectly. I want to comment that I baked it at 5880 feet. It came out perfectly. I eliminated the pecans (allergy) and the raisins and it was delicious. I reduced the heat towards the end because it was getting quite brown and took it out 3 mins early. It was very fun to make. I enjoy waiting for yeast breads to rise.
This was my first time making a king cake and I don’t know that I’d be willing to try another recipe this one was so good! Not too sweet and it turned out so well! I made both cakes and gave one to a neighbor. Per other comments I left out the raisins, made 1.5x the filling, and made two rolled pieces that I twisted together. The video was helpful, it mentions switching the place of the cakes halfway through cooking and that the icing recipe is for one cake. I found I needed to add the sanding sugar immediately or it wouldn’t stick. Thank you Jo for a great recipe for this novice!
Great recipe, the only complaint is that the bake heat was too high (i baked mine at 340° (170C) based on prior reviews) for 30 minutes and a higher heat would have been too much as it was perfectly golden and done inside...Some of the pictures show a decidedly brown cake and that seems too much to me. Additionally, I added a bit of cream cheese to the frosting because I enjoy that but otherwise I followed the recipe to a T and it looks and tastes fabulous! I'm quite proud of myself as I thought something with so many steps would turn out a mess, though I am a somewhat experienced baker! Despite what others say about the filling not needing raisins (one famed King Cake bakery in New Orleans has over 60 different fillings, so I really wasn't bothered by needing a "traditional" filling comments) and desiring the "braiding" instead of the large roll with the scissor snips, I thought the result looked and tasted lovely. Though I will admit, this is basically a "glorified cinnamon roll" as someone else mentioned. But it's much more special due to the history and the decorations. I could not find a small plastic baby in my area but used a jelly belly baby (like a gummy bear) instead, historically people used coins or large dried beans so that's not super important. Also as a note: you don't need anything in the center to keep it from baking together or any special hot water (?!) when it rises....just treat it like the recipe says and it will be fine.
Easy & great recipe! I make cinnamon rolls for the local farmers market each week & was always told by my friends that I should make king cakes, but the cakes intimidated me, for some reason. Upon looking at this recipe, I realized the steps were almost exactly like my cinnamon recipe. I braided my king cake for more appeal.
Absolutely delightful! I made a slight mistake and didn't let it rise for 45 minutes after rolling up and creating the oval. However, it turned out delicious.
It was necessary to cover with foil to keep it from burning.
Definitely worth the time and effort.
I halved the recipe because I was baking for four and it worked well. Only change I would make would be to add more filling next time. Also, the outside bakes just a little faster than the inside and I had to cover the edges with foil for the last few minutes of baking.
Made it for a New Orleans based lunch at work and people went CRAZY over it! Instead of raisins I used "Jammy Apple Bits" from King Arthur, otherwise stuck to the recipe exactly (doubled - made 2 huge cakes on pizza trays). It just truly blew everyone away. In one try it has become my new "go to" favorite cake/brunch/sweet roll loaf. It will be made again and again here. Thank you!
It makes two! It’s more like a breakfast bread pastry. Sweet and lovely. I made the recipe as written as I was unfamiliar with King Cake. I let the dough raise overnight in the refrigerator and the baked it the next day. The taste, even with the raisins, is very nice. I did lower the over temperature and shorten the baking time as suggested. I did not , however, use something in the middle to maintain the ring, though I wish I had. I only sprinkled with white sanding sugar as that’s what I had. Thanks for this recipe!
It was a bit dry but still very good. Took most of the day to make it and I'm a well seasoned baker.
