King Cake

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• Warm water, 1/2 cup

• Yeast, 2 envelopes

• Flour (sifted), 6 cups

• Sugar, 1/2 cup

• Grated nutmeg, 1/2 tsp

• Salt, 2 tsp

• Grated lemon zest, 1 tsp

• Lukewarm milk, 1/2 cup

• Eggs, 3

• Egg yolks, 4

• Butter (softened), 1/2 cup

• Tiny doll or coin (optional)

For the icing:

• Confectioner's sugar, 3 cups

• Lemon juice, 1/4 cup

• Water, 3 to 5 tbsp

For the sugar topping:

• Food coloring purple, green and yellow

• Sugar, 3/4 cup

For the cinnamon sugar:

• Sugar, 1 cup

• Ground cinnamon, 4 tsp

For the egg wash:

• Egg yolk, 2

• Milk, 2 tbps

Preparation:

In a bowl combine the flour, yeast, sugar, nutmeg and the salt. Stir in the lemon zest.

Mix the water with the milk and the butter, heat it up without boiling. Slowly add it to the flour mixture.

Add the eggs and the egg yolks to the mixture, continue kneading until the dough is uniform.

The dough must be very smooth and elastic, a little sticky but never stiff.

Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with kitchen foil. Let it rise for 2 hours.

 Punch the dough. Divide the dough first in half, then divide one half  again into two pieces and the other half into three pieces.

Roll out each piece to a rectangle shape, brush it with butter and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar.

Roll up each rectangle and pinch the ends together.

At this point you should have 3 cylinders (result from the first half) in one side and 2 cylinders on the other side (result from the other half).

Twist the cylinders together into a circle (so you get 2 circles, 1 of 3 cylinders and 1 of 2 cylinders).

Cover each circle with the egg wash and then with kitchen foil. Let it rise for 45 minutes.

In the meanwhile preheat the oven at 180°C and bake the loaves from 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Place the loaves onto a wire rack and let it cool down.

Combine the confectioner's sugar, lemon juice and the water in a bowl. Stir until smooth, it should be thin enough  to run slowly down the sides of the loaves.

Spread the icing over the top and let it run down the sides.

Sprinkle with the colored sugars over the icing immediately froming a row of purple, yellow and green on both sides of the ring.