Roscón de Reyes (King Cake)

My favorite time of the year is coming to an end, and later on today I’ll put away all my Christmas decorations – it’s such a pity, I love seeing them throughout the house.

The sixth of January is also the day to celebrate the Three Kings, and to do so I bring you this delicious recipe, a sort of brioche topped with a lemon glaze – unlike the King Cake I’d seen on this book, Gourmet Traveller’s version is a lot prettier, with no plastic baby hidden inside: just tender sweet bread with almonds, ginger and cranberries.

Who said atheists can’t enjoy some of the Catholic traditions? ;)

Roscón de Reyes (King Cake)
slightly adapted from the always gorgeous Gourmet Traveller

110ml whole milk
2 ½ teaspoons dried yeast
60g granulated sugar
500g all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
55ml olive oil
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
finely grated zest of 1 orange
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g unsalted butter, coarsely chopped and softened
glacé ginger, halved glacé cherries and blanched almonds, for decoration – I used dried cranberries instead of cherries

Lemon glaze:
100g confectioners’ sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Warm milk and 100ml water in a small saucepan over low heat until lukewarm, add yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar and set aside in a warm place until foaming (4-5 minutes). Combine flour, salt, oil, citrus zest and remaining sugar in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, gradually add milk mixture, beat for 5 minutes, add eggs and vanilla and beat to combine. Beating continuously, gradually add butter and beat until a soft dough forms (3-4 minutes). Cover and set aside in a warm place until doubled in size (1-1½ hours).
Knock back dough, cover and set aside to rest (10 minutes). Lightly butter a 10-cup capacity Bundt pan.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface, roll into a 30cmx50cm rectangle, then roll into a long cylinder, pinch edge to seal firmly, then bring ends together to form a ring and pinch to seal. Place seam-side down in prepared pan. Cover with greased plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until nearly doubled in size (30-40 minutes). In the meantime, preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully unmold onto rack. Cool completely.

Lemon glaze: sift the icing sugar into a small bowl and gradually add the lemon juice, stirring until drizzling thick drizzling consistency. Drizzle roscón with glaze, set aside until icing is almost set, then top the glaze with ginger, cherries and almonds and serve.

Serves 8-10