Our Traditional Mardi Gras King Cake has a rich brioche dough filled with sweet cinnamon cream cheese filling, topped with a sweet glaze, and colored sanding sugar.
In a large stand mixer with a dough hook (if you don’t have a stand mixer you can use a large bowl) add warm water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes until foamy.
Add in remaining granulated sugar, milk, brown sugar, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. Beat together on low until thoroughly combined.
Add in salt and a little bit of flour. Mix together. Add in remaining flour and knead on medium until combined. Then knead on high for 4 minutes.
Add in butter and continue kneading dough until dough is smooth and dough pulls away from bowl. It will take about 5-6 minutes.
Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm place to rise until dough has doubled in size 1-1 ½ hours.
While dough is rising make filling. And then continue to step 7 when dough has risen.
Punch dough down and turn dough out on to a flour surface. Use a rolling pin, coated in flour, to roll dough out. Roll out into a rectangle ¼” thick, approximately 21” long by 9” wide.
Make filling and assemble.
Filling, Assembly, & Baking:
Combine cream cheese, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon until smooth.
Spread filling over rolled out dough spreading filling about to about ½” away from the edge.
Roll longwise into a tight swirl (like you would with cinnamon rolls) pinching the dough underneath to seal filling in. Form your long tube into a circle and pinch dough together to seal edges.
Place on a large baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes. Cake should be golden brown.
Make glaze: mix butter and ½ cup of powdered sugar until smooth. Add in buttermilk and remaining powdered sugar, mix until smooth.
Once cake is completely cool, insert plastic baby or bean into the bottom of the cake. Spoon glaze over top of cake. Top with sanding sugars, alternating colors. Slice and enjoy! I like to warm my slice up in the microwave for 8-10 seconds before eating!