A pastry, a miniature plastic baby, and a celebration are all components of the New Orleans custom known as “king cake”! A tiny plastic baby is baked into the cake, and whomever eats the slice that contains the baby must host the following gathering. To get the best effect from this cake, be sure to purchase a brand-new little plastic baby. Add a garnish of purple, green, and gold sugar, or top with candied cherries and entire pecans.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 2 cakes |
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup butter
- ⅔ cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- ½ cup white sugar, divided
- 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ⅔ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup raisins
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup melted butter
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 plastic baby doll
Instructions
- Make pastry: Scald milk over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
- Stir together warm water, 1 tablespoon white sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
- Add cooled milk mixture to yeast mixture and whisk in eggs. Stir in remaining white sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Beat flour, 1 cup at a time, into milk/egg mixture. Once dough comes together, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl; turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. When risen, punch down and divide dough in half.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
- Make filling: Combine brown sugar, pecans, flour, raisins, and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour melted butter on top and mix until crumbly.
- Roll each piece of dough into a 10×16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough and roll up tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at a wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form 2 oval-shaped rings.
- Place each ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors, make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1-inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
- Bake in the preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Check often for doneness so the ring doesn’t overbake.
- Make glaze: Stir together confectioners’ sugar and water in a bowl until smooth.
- Push doll into bottom of one warm cake. Drizzle glaze over both warm cakes.
- Be sure to tell everyone to inspect their piece of cake before they begin eating it. To be extra careful, use a plastic toy baby that is too large to swallow, or hide an orange wedge or 3 to 4 pecan halves inside the cake (avoiding items that may hurt someone’s teeth), and then place the honorable toy baby on top of the cake for all to see and adore!
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 418 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 69 g |
| Cholesterol | 47 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 301 mg |
| Sugars | 31 g |
| Fat | 13 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I cut the recipe in half, needing only one cake. I haven’t made a yeast dough in ages, and even using a thermometer, it took me four tries to get the yeast to do its thing. Like others, I found that 375 degrees was too hot; the bottom of the cake was overdone and a little tough. In addition to baking at 350 instead, I’d also recommend doubling the filling; I think the cake could have done with a bit more. Other than the overcooked bottom, I found the cake to be light, fluffy, and delicious — this recipe is a keeper for me!
Yum! Definitely halve next time — I’m only backing for 4. I was baking at 6400’, and it only took 20 minutes at 375 before it was DONE. I used a piece of pasta (cavatappi, so we wouldn’t miss it) as the bean/baby.
I had complete success. Made this for a group of about 20-25 and didn’t get to take home a crumb. It’s now a part of my permanent baking files.
The reviews that mentioned cream cheese, extra filling and lower oven temp made this Fan-Freaking-tastic
My go to recipe every year. This year I made one filled with cinnamon cream cheese and one filled with cinnamon and walnuts. For me, 350° at 27-30min works great
Like some others I made half but I left the filling full size which was great. I also cooked it at 350 like the video said, 375 seems too high. It was done just under 30 minutes. Family liked it a lot.
This king cake is gooooood. Used the comments below and cooked at 325 for 30 min. Also added cream cheese to the filling. Rest I followed instructions. This is very close to Nola style king cake. Love it and will make again. Thank you!
Experienced baker here. Followed recipe precisely. I knew from the start the oven temp would be too high and I was right. The cake was a very dark brown after 25 minutes and still underdone in the center. Dough was quite dense. Not light and airy like genuine King Cakes I’ve had from NOLA. Flavor was ok. I would look for another recipe to try
Doubled the filling, otherwise perfect! ⚜️
I have never had King Cake before so I can’t comment on it’s authenticity , but I can say it was delicious. The dough was wonderful and so easy to work with. I will be using this dough for lots of different sweet breads. Absolutely wonderful!
Delicious! The recipe was very easy to follow and well laid out. A bit involved but that’s just bread for you.
They cakes turned out delicious. Based on other reviews, I made 1.5x the filling, left out the raisins and took some liberties decorating with gold (edible) pearls vs. yellow sugar. The only thing I will do next time is brush the outside of the cakes with egg yolk/water to give it some shine. I gave my neighbor one of the cakes and she is thrilled with it as well! Looking forward to making many more times.
Well… it is now February 2023 and we made the cakes again. They were fabulous all her friends enjoyed them wouldn’t change a thing and we’re still on the island in the Caribbean ! So We have made this recipe before and not only is it delicious but it is fun to make! My hubby and created these and intend to share with our Caribbean neighbors here on Ambergris Island!
This was a solid recipe! I skipped the raisins, and wished I would have made a bit more filling than the recipe specifies.
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.
This was a practice run for a Mardi Gras party we are to attend. Hubby made one, I did the other. We ended up using a little less flour. Loved the pecans & even the raisins (personally, not a fan). Turned out great in looks, smell & taste was amazing. Will be proud to present this to our fellow party goers. Thanks 🙂
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!
This is a great recipe, a family favorite. The only modification I make is I double the filling recipe. Can’t have too many pecans. Scrumptious.
This was the first time I made King Cake, and it was fabulous! Following a lot of people’s advice in the comments, I made double the filling (I didn’t use quite all of it), and baked it at 350 for about 27 minutes. It was so good that I think I might make it again, without green, gold, and purple sugar, and just call it part of brunch.
It was delicious! Found the plastic babies in the party section at Walmart. Used golden raisins. Will make again next year.
Easy to make. Turned out great. I used a red wine glaze OMG