By: Kendall Pastry Chefs, Heidi Hedeker and Marianne Albovias
Before beads, parades, and hurricane drinks signal the arrival of the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, the Carnival season begins on January 6—twelve days after Christmas, known as Three Kings' Day, Epiphany, or “Twelfth Night”. That’s when you’ll find a king cake, a type of sweet bread with its colorful decoration of purple, green and gold, being shared among friends throughout the season. Inside your slice you might find a coin, a bean or a plastic baby making you king for the day. This is just one way that this day is celebrated around the word.
This tradition dates back to the 12th or 13th century when the monks of St. Michel, France would choose their Epiphany king by means of this cake. Many countries celebrate this day with a sweet bread or cake shaped in a crown to commemorate when the three kings visited Jesus, in Christian tradition. In Spain and Mexico, the cake is known as Rosca de Reyes, in Switzerland and Germany, Dreikönigskuchen, or as Galette de Rois in France. New Orleans' version of king cake was introduced to the population of Louisiana in 1870 by French settlers. Traditional colors in a New Orleans king cake are purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power. Does your family celebrate this tradition? If not, it’s definitely a delicious one to adopt!
Cultures around the world celebrate the season of Epiphany with different kinds of cakes and celebrations – from the first sighting of the baby Jesus by the three wise men or kings, through to the start of the Lent season on Mardi Gras or ‘Fat Tuesday’. The traditions range from pure celebration to insights about the year ahead – always gleaming with sparkling light, hopes for the future, and high spirits.
Swedish King Oscare Cake
Almond feve
Whole almond: one
Edible gold dust diluted in lemon extract or clear alcohol
- Using a small paintbrush, paint the almond with diluted gold dust.
- Allow to dry without touching while preparing the cake layers, praline and buttercream.
Meringue layers
Egg whites 6
Sugar 6oz
Powdered sugar 4oz
Almond flour, toasted for 5 minutes in 300F oven 8oz
Edible purple, green and gold glitter or dust
- Sift together the toasted almond flour with the powdered sugar and set aside.
- Begin whipping the egg whites on high speed. When they hold a soft peak and there is no more liquid egg whites in the bottom of the bowl, sprinkle in the sugar gradually while still whipping on high speed.
- Once all of the sugar has been added, and the meringue is quite stiff, lower the mixer speed to its lowest setting and add in the sifted almond flour-powdered sugar mixture. Do this rather quickly – it should take no more than a few rotations of the whisk – then stop mixing once all of the almond flour-powdered sugar has been incorporated.
- Pipe or spread the mixture into four 8-inch discs on parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Pipe meringue ‘kisses’ alongside the discs and dust with the three colors of edible glitter. These are to garnish the exterior of the cake. Bake them alongside the larger discs.
- Bake at 300F for about 60-90 minutes, until golden and crisp to your touch. Remove the meringues from the oven, set aside and allow to cool.
- Once cool, remove the meringue discs from the paper or silicone. It’s okay if they break – you can ‘glue’ them together with buttercream when constructing the cake.
Almond praline
Sugar 12 oz
Sliced Almonds, either natural or blanched, toasted 6oz
- While the meringues are baking, prepare the almond praline: caramelize the sugar over low heat very slowly, stirring whenever you notice that sugar has melted. Altogether it will take approximately 20-30 minutes to caramelize all the sugar.
- Once caramelized, add in the toasted almond slices. Pour onto a silicone- or parchment-lined sheet tray. Allow the mixture to cool and harden.
- Once cool and hardened, use a small kitchen mallet or rolling pin to crush the piece of praline into a crunchy pieces, no larger than ½”. Once you have broken the big mass into manageable pieces, you can also use a food processor to further grind down the pieces. You want some texture – it’s okay if as much as half of this becomes a caramelized ‘dust’ – but make sure to leave some crunch!
Swedish buttercream
Heavy cream 12oz
Sugar 8oz
Egg yolks 6 (from the egg whites separated for the meringue layers)
Butter, room temperature 12oz
Divide the sugar in half (two 4oz portions)
2. Place the cream into a saucepan and add the sugar. Allow the sugar to settle to the bottom of the pot without stirring the mixture.
3. Heat the cream mixture over medium heat until you see steam rising from the surface. Don’t stir! The sugar at the bottom of the pot will keep the mixture from burning and sticking to the bottom.
4. While the cream is heating, whisk together the remaining sugar with the egg yolks.
5. Once the cream has been heated, whisk it into the yolk-sugar mixture slowly.
6. Return the egg yolk-cream mixture to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a spoon, and not allowing the mixture to come to a boil. If the mixture boils, the egg yolks will scramble. Cooking the custard sauce will take about 8-12 minutes.
7. Once the custard sauce thickens enough to coat a spoon, strain it and cool it quickly. You can do this by setting it over an ice bath or into the freezer, stirring occasionally.
8. When the custard has cooled slightly, add in the butter. It may melt – that’s okay – the entire mixture should be just lukewarm. Place back onto the ice bath until it is cool to the touch.
9. Place onto the mixer with a whisk attachment and whisk on medium speed. The mixture will begin to aerate and then turn into a buttercream. If it separates, place onto a double boiler to gently re-melt the separated butter pieces – about one-third of the mixture should appear liquid. Re-beat on medium speed to make the buttercream. Mix until light and fluffy.
10. To the light buttercream, fold in half of the crushed praline.
Cake construction
Components
Meringue layers
Almond praline, crushed (half of the total mixture)
Buttercream with almond praline folded in (half of the total mixture)
Toasted almond slice
Whole almond fevre (the ‘lucky’ gold almond piece or baby Jesus)
- Place a disc of meringue onto a cake board. Spread with 6oz of praline buttercream, then spread a layer of crushed praline over that before topping with another layer of meringue.
- Continue with construction: meringue layer, buttercream, almond praline layer. Place the prepared gold almond onto one of the layers, within the cake, sandwiching it into the cake.
- Finish the cake by frosting with the praline buttercream.
- Garnish the sides with toasted almond slices.
- Attach the meringue kisses on the top as a decoration.
