Amy Emberling, Lindsay-Jean Hard, Lee Vedder, Corynn Coscia

New Orleans King Cake

Name: New Orleans King Cake
Yield: Makes one oval cake
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: ¼ cup [60 g] gold or yellow sanding sugar; ¼ cup [60 g] gold or yellow sanding sugar; Small plastic baby or uncooked bean (optional); ¼ cup [60 g] green sanding sugar; ¼ cup [60 g] purple sanding sugar; 2 to 3 Tbsp water, warm; ½ Tbsp corn syrup; 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon; 2 cups [220 g] powdered sugar; 1 tsp lemon zest or almond extract (optional, if you’d like a little more flavor in your glaze); Small plastic baby or uncooked bean (optional); 1 tsp lemon zest or almond extract (optional, if you’d like a little more flavor in your glaze); 1 tsp lemon zest or almond extract (optional, if you’d like a little more flavor in your glaze); ½ cup [110 g] unsalted butter, room temperature; 1 tsp instant yeast; 1½ tsp fine sea salt; ¼ cup [50 g] granulated sugar; 1 egg yolk, room temperature; 1 large egg, room temperature; ¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp [80 g] brown sugar, packed; 1 cup plus 3 Tbsp [170 g] all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting; ½ cup [115 g] whole milk, room temperature; 1 cup plus 3 Tbsp [170 g] all-purpose flour

Preparation info

Makes
one
oval cake

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Zingerman’s Bakehouse Celebrate Every Day

By Amy Emberling , Lindsay-Jean Hard , Lee Vedder and Corynn Coscia

Published 2024

About

Get ready for a Mardi Gras celebration with this festive, colorful King Cake. While the French King Cake we make for Epiphany also joins the Fat Tuesday fun to close out the Carnival season, this New Orleans style of King Cake is probably the more recognized version here in the United States. If you’d like, add a small trinket to the cake after it’s baked, like a plastic baby or an uncooked bean; tradition has it that you’ll have good fortune if you find i

Ingredients

Americas
United States
mardi gras
New Orleans
January
Winter
Vegetarian
Cake

Ingredients

Method