Traditional King Cake

I love this recipe. I've been promising myself I'd try to make a real King Cake but every year I've chickened out. This year I DID IT!!! It's wonderful. I do have a couple of changes that I will make the next time. Make sure to PINCH the bottom seam. Also, next time I will decrease the amount of lemon juice. Probably will just use small amount of lemon extract and more milk. I love lemon but with the sugars and powdered sugar in the glaze was just too much. I had added a pinch or two of kosher salt to cut the sweetness but the lemon is just tooo much with all the sugar for my taste.

To Susan: make sure your oven is preheated before baking king cakes. Are you letting it rise long enough, and is your yeast fresh? Is your oven temperature accurate? If it isn't heating to the proper temp, this could be one reason why your cakes are gooey in the center. Just a few things to check... Good luck! :-) I have used this recipe for over 20 years with no problems except for the time I forgot to add the yeast...oops!

This tasted a lot like the king cakes I've grown up eating! I halved the recipe, and it worked well. I did make some substitutions: used all purpose flour and greek yogurt instead of sour cream because that was what I had on hand. I also made a glaze of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. This was really good, and I will use this recipe again!

My friends and I are HUGE King Cake snobs and this is the first true crowd pleaser! NOLA approved!

I made this two years ago and it was wonderful. Didn't change a thing. Ate myself stupid with it! :)

I made this recipe yesterday alongside my traditional king cake recipe and I have to admit, this one is lighter and easier to work with. The frosting is also very good. The dough rises quick too. This is a great recipe.

This was my first time making the King Cake, and it was very, very successful. The recipe was a bit intimidating at first, but was actually easy when taken one step at a time. I followed the recipe exactly, using regular flour instead of bread flour, and it was a bit more dense.

I have a question and maybe someone will answer even though lent has started: What is the idea behind bread flour? It baked very crusty and densely on the outside. The inside dough didn't bake while the surface dough was well-baked without burning. Would it be worth it to try again with all-purpose or is there something else I could be doing wrong?

Fabulous!! I made 5 of these cakes for church and work and everyone loved them!! I will make these every year, whether or not I get the nut. I used regular flour and diluted canned white icing. The result was a very moist, cinnamon bun like cake.

This recipe is fabulous! The cream cheese filling is perfect as written. However, I spread strawberry pie filling on top of the cream cheese mixture. So delicious. My friends and family have enjoyed this cake so much, I'm now making my third recipe in five days. Superb!

This is a good solid recipe. I used brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and chopped pecans for the filling and it was delicious!

My daughter and I made the cream cheese filled version (and added some cherry preserves), had a great time and it was wonderful! I did all the mixing and kneading in a stand mixer which made the process very easy (I had sworn off making things with yeast some time ago as I always seem to knead the life out of dough). Add a five year-olds decorating sense and you have a delicious party on a plate! We will be making this yearly :^)

Anyone help? My sister makes this recipe with great results. My cakes are always brown on the outside and raw in the innermost area. I am baking these according to directios, but with the same results. Any ideas?

Growning up in New Orleans, this was a staple at our house during the Mardi Gras season. These are not around living up north and having them shipped is expensive and they don't arrive very fresh. This recipe is as close as you can get to the real thing. The only thing I would change is to omit the lemon juice in the glaze. I'll be making my own from now on!

I have tried this recipe a couple of times. It seems promising, but I cannot get my cakes to rise! They looked lovely though!

To fishandrun ----- Be sure the temperature of your water (added to the yeast is the correct temp. It should be 115 degrees.) Then let sit 5 minutes. ALSO, make sure your bowl of dough is warm. I cover my bowl with plastic wrap, then wrap a huge heavy bath towel over the top of bowl. In winter time I also pre-heat my oven to 175 degrees, turn OFF the oven, then let it cool off a bit. Place the whole bowl, towel, etc. in the oven (BE SURE YOU TURN OFF YOUR OVEN). I do it for both times the dough needs to be raised. A cold room will deter your dough from rising up. Hope this helps.

I made this for the first time last year and this year I made it twice. Each time the reviews were excellent. I made them without a heavy duty mixer so it was a lot of trouble (but worth it!). However, I think next year I will tell my husband "no new mixer, no King Cake." LOL

I've been making this recipe for years for our Mardi Gras party and people always rave about it!

I have made this recipe several times and it is remarkably easy and consistently delicious!!!