According to my husband, this is the best king cake ever. We first had this cake while visiting my best friend Lisa and her family. Trey has been begging me to make it ever since. He also says it tastes better when it’s underbaked. If you like that texture as well, bake it for 35 minutes instead. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do! After the recipe I have a few thoughts on this special season.
Sourdough King Cake
Ingredients
Levain
- 60 grams unfed sourdough starter (room temp.)
- 70 grams all-purpose flour
- 70 grams warm water
Cake Dough
- ¼ cup salted butter
- 16 oz sour cream
- ⅓ cup sucanat (or cane sugar)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 5 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting)
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp avocado oil
Cream Cheese Filling
- 2, 8 oz packages cream cheese (room temp.)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- ½ cup sucanat (or cane sugar)
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
Frosting
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp milk (or more for thinning)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Day 1 – Evening
- In a small bowl, combine your Levain ingredients and stir well. Cover and let it sit at room temperature overnight.
Day 2 – Morning
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter, sour cream, sugar, and salt on low heat. Set aside to cool till room temperature.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the levain, eggs, and 2 cups of flour.
- Add in the cooled, wet ingredients from the saucepan. Briefly mix. Add another 3 cups of flour. Mix until the flour is incorporated, and continue to mix for 2 minutes. Add in the final ½ cup and mix for 2 minutes. The dough will be sticky, but it will firm up over time.
- Remove the bowl from stand mixer. Pour in the 3 tbsp of oil. With your hands, toss the dough around the bowl, until it’s covered in oil and shape it into a smooth ball. Cover and let it sit in a warm place for 2-4 hours, until doubled in size.
Day 2 – After First Rise
- Dust a large work surface and dump out the dough. Divide it into 3 even pieces (you can use a scale or just eye-ball it). Roll out each piece into a large rectangle, approximately 6 in. x 20 in. Let these pieces rest while you make the fillings.
Cream Cheese Filling
- Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer and beat until smooth.
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated.
Assembling the Cake
- Take one of the rectangles and spread the cinnamon sugar filling evenly, leaving a 2 inch rim on all sides bare. Tightly roll the dough lengthwise, making sure the seam is underneath.
- Divide the cream cheese filling between the remaining rectangles. Spread the filling and roll the dough in the same manner as before.
- To make the braid, place the ropes right next to each other. Shimmy a large piece of parchment paper underneath them. Starting on one end, press all the ends together. Lay the middle strand over the left, lay the new middle strand over the right. Repeat middle over left, then middle over right until the end. Connect the top and bottom of the braid.
- Gently shimmy the braided dough around the parchment paper, so that it fits in the center. Leave the dough on the paper and transfer to a baking sheet. Cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let it rise for 2 hours.
- After the second rise, combine the egg wash ingredients. Lightly brush it all over the dough.
- Bake at 350℉ for 45 min, or until browned to your liking. Let cool completely before frosting.
Frosting the Cake
- Combine the frosting ingredients in a bowl and mix until well incorporated.
- Transfer the frosting to a zip-lock bag. Press the frosting into one of the bottom corners of the bag and cut a very small tip off. Drizzle the frosting onto the cake.
The Reason for the Season
Ah yes, it’s that time of year again: Carnival Season. We don’t do “Mardi Gras” celebrations in our home, but we do take advantage of this liturgical time from Epiphany until Shrove Tuesday (unfortunately known as Fat Tuesday). To understand the significance of Carnival, you have to understand Advent & Christmas.
You see, the season of Advent for Catholics, is supposed to be a penitential one. You could even call it a “mini-Lent”. This precious season should have us immersed in the quiet, anxious waiting for the coming of Our Lord. I’m sure you would agree, that the world makes it difficult to truly stay peaceful during Advent. It’s as if the Christmas celebrations start an hour after eating the turkey on Thanksgiving day. Or if you go into any store, Christmas decorations come onto the sales floor in September.
The world wants to avoid penitential seasons, maybe even the alternating of them altogether. But what makes a feast special if there is no fast? A cake for breakfast every morning might sound fun, but after a few days the excitement would wane. Best to stick to special occasions, so that there’s always something to look forward to. There’s a time for celebrating, but also a time for mourning. A time for fasting and a time for feasting. We can’t, and shouldn’t, be in a feasting state forever.
For those who follow the directives of Holy Mother Church, we just came out of this mini-Lent, where we avoided parties, kept the decorations in the attic, sang “O Come Divine Messiah” instead of “Jingle Bell Rock” and kept the desserts to only feast days (which, come on, there’s like a ton of them in Advent anyways so it’s not that hard!).
I can already hear you say, “Well you’re just a Scrooge stealing all the fun away from Christmas!” You’re missing my point. The world pretends that Christmas starts whenever you feel like it, and ends at 11pm on December 25th. Christmas actually starts at 12am December 25th and lasts for 12 days. The Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th starts the Carnival season, and lasts until Shrove Tuesday. So Catholics do have a time for feasting and celebrating, it’s just different than what the world does. We aren’t Scrooges after all! And now, between Advent and Lent, we get to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, and take advantage of the “Carnival” season that follows.
What Does Carnival Really Mean?
Carnival means “goodbye to meat”. This definition is in strong opposition to what a google search will tell you: a period of public revelry before Lent, involving parades, music, and dancing. Yes, Carnival season is the time to enjoy parties and social gatherings. It is the time to celebrate. Not however, a license to hurry up and commit sins before the Lenten season starts. Who can blame outsiders for viewing the actions of so-called Catholics during this time, and call them hypocrites?
What’s even worse, is that we’ve collectively forgotten what Shrove Tuesday is. The day before Ash Wednesday was a special day of self-examination. Shrove means “to present oneself to a priest for confession.” In essence, it’s a day to go to confession, reflect on what we need to work on, and to choose penances to go along with the usual daily fasting and Friday abstinence during Lent. And yes, we can also have one last cake to get it out of the kitchen. How does the world celebrate Shrove Tuesday?…parades, balls, debauchery, drunkenness, revelry, gluttony….As a sane society, we shouldn’t particularly care to take part of such things. And as a very wise priest said recently, “There’s no such thing as a ‘kid-friendly’ Mardi Gras parade.” They should all be avoided.
Let’s proclaim ourselves attached to Christ and detach ourselves from how the world wants us to do things. How about we all try to moderate our celebrations? How about we install “not-so-new traditions” during this special time?
We very much enjoy the company of our families and celebrate with many treats before Lent. Lent is a rigorous time of fasting and abstinence. Going back centuries ago, meat was forbidden during Lent; along with milk, cream, eggs (this is why Easter has an association with eggs), butter, cheese, etc. The closer Ash Wednesday came, the housewives desperately tried to clear the pantry of the forbidden goods. Many cultures around the world have their take on the Carnival season treat: donuts fried in lard, buttery pastries, and cakes. Here in Louisiana, ours is the King Cake! A beautiful reminder of Who we are celebrating: The King of Kings, The Prince of Peace, Our Most Beloved Lord and Savior.
Like I said, I try to make many treats from Christmas until Shrove Tuesday as our own little family tradition. It’s a special time that makes the fasting and abstinence during Advent all worth it. We don’t feel like we’re missing out when our Christmas tree stays up until Candlemas on February 2nd! Let’s reclaim Carnival for what it really is: A time of thanksgiving for the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What traditions do you want to start this year? Let me know in the comments!
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