Vegan King Cake 2008!

Edited 2013:  
❤ XGFX Peanut Butter Cup King Cake can be found here. (Plain dough can be used with other fillings).
❤ Regular Peanut Butter Cup King Cake can be found here.
 
Happy Mardi Gras. You too, baby!

Mardi Gras is in full swing down here, and dazee's been beggin' for King Cake--so of course I obliged!

Money shot! We had to dig in right away.

When I made the Pan de Muertos for The Day of the Dead last year, I thought the dough would work really well for King Cake, so I decided to give it a try this year. I like this recipe so much better than the recipe I've been using the last few years. The texture of the dough is very soft, and it rises so nicely--it makes a much higher cake.

My friend Avery sent me several jars of preserves she put up last Summer, so I decided to make good use of some for Carnival--The cake pictured above is half blueberry and half cinnamon sugar. The juicy homemade blueberry preserves really did this cake a favor, it came out extremely moist.

King Kake (revised Mardi Gras 2008)
Makes one large ring.

What You Need:

• 1 cup whole wheat bread flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup unbleached granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (four tablespoons) Earth Balance
• 1/4 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
• 1/4 cup tepid water
• 1/2 cup non-dairy yogurt
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch or Ener-G egg replacer (dry--don't mix with liquid)
• 2 teaspoons organic orange zest, divided
• 1 1/2-2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and more non-dairy milk for glaze.

What You Do:

1. In the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook, combine the whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar.
2. Heat the Earth Balance and non-dairy milk over medium low heat, until the Earth Balance is melted. Remove from heat and add the warm water. Bring the temperature to 110F.
3. Add the warm liquid to the flour and and beat to combine. Add the yogurt, Ener-G and zest and continue to beat until well blended.
4. Add in 1/2 cup of white flour and mix to combine. Continue to add the white flour in 1/2 cup increments until the dough is soft and firm, but still a bit tacky (mine only needed 1 1/2 cups).
5. Knead for ten minutes by hand or five with a dough hook, until the dough is smooth and elastic (it will be slightly tacky to the touch).
6. Gather the dough into a ball and let rise in a large bowl covered with a tea towel in a warm area, until doubled in size about 2 hours. (I put mine in the oven with the pilot light lit).
7. Once the dough has risen, punch it down, preheat the oven to 350F.
8. Lightly flour your counter and rol lthe dough out into a long rectangle about 26"X20" (keep the wide end facing you). The dough should be about 1/4" thin.
9. Once the dough is rolled out, it's time to fill it. Spread your choice of filling over the whole thing, but leave a 1" margin at the top and sides to help prevent the filling (see below) from squirting out when you roll it.
10. Starting at the bottom edge, carefully roll up the dough, jelly style--don't forger to hide a tiny baby in the cake somewhere (you can use a dry bean, too). Pinch the seam really well, and connect the ends to form an elliptical ring. The sides will need to be pinched extremely well too, because they often leak.
11. Carefully transfer to the dough to a parchment covered cookie sheet and bake until brown about 35-45 minutes.
12. Let cool ten minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool more.
13. While the dough cools, make the sugar glaze. Sift the sugar in a bowl, and add just a tiny bit of milk-teaspoon by teaspoon- until it's a thick but pourable consistency. Pour over the mostly cooled cake and decorate with purple, gold and green sugar**.

*Fillings:  I usually make one of the following (or a combination), the cake shown in the pictures above is half blueberry and half cinnamon sugar. Usually if I make a cream cheeze cake, I sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top. See the picture below.

1. Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
2. Granulated sugar mixed with ground cinnamon
3. Preserves

Spreading on cream cheese.

Rolling up the dough--sprinkled with cinnamon sugar on top of the cream cheeze.

Colored sugar

**Colored Sugar:  Even in New Orleans, I have trouble finding purple sprinkles during the season (I think they sell out fast), so I just make my own. It's really easy if you use Wilton food color pastes. Just put some sugar in a bowl, add a little bit of colored paste, and then mix really well. I usually use my fingers to get the paste blended well with the sugar.

xo
kittee