Three Kings Day Cake

Bake a king cake. The king cake ("rosca de reyes" in Spanish) is the most important part of a Three Kings Day celebration. Usually made from egg bread and crown-shaped, the king cake always contains a small trinket hidden somewhere inside the bread. Most cakes are flavored with lemons or oranges, candied fruits and sometimes brandy.

Recipe: Three Kings Day Cake

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup light raisins
• 3/4 cup chopped dates
• 1 1/3 cups chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/2 cup chopped candied orange or lemon peel
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) softened butter
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 8 large eggs
• 4 cups + 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup brandy or whiskey or orange juice
• .
• Glaze:
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon or orange juice

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 10-inch Bundt pan and two (6"x4") mini loaf pans (for gifting!) with cooking spray. Mix fruits and nuts and toss with 3/4 cup flour to keep ingredients from clumping together in cake batter. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. In a separate bowl, mix together 4 cups flour and baking powder and slowly add to the butter-sugar-egg mixture, combining thoroughly. Add vanilla and liquor or juice, mixing well. Stir in fruit-nut mixture by hand until thoroughly incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake mini loaves 25 minutes to 35 minutes or more, and Bundt pan 45 minutes to 1 hour or more, or until toothpick tests clean. Let cake cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before inverting onto rack to cool completely. Combine glaze ingredients and pour over cooled cake, letting it run down the sides.

When cutting the cake, insert a whole un-shelled almond in one slice of cake from the underside. Make a paper crown, if desired, and place it atop the cake. Let guests serve themselves. Whoever gets the almonds is king or queen for the day and wears the crown.

Chubby Yummy’s Lemon Pound Cake

Well, a new year has arrived and it’s already positioning itself as a remarkable year for new tasting discoveries.  The excitement of unearthing long-forgotten recipes coupled with simplistic variations on existing cake recipes, will -undoubtedly- delight caking-making enthusiasts of all ages. 

Whether you’re the owner of a local bakery (dessert shop) or simply a fan of home-style caking-making, this year’s recipes and ingredients’ combination will expose your taste buds to something rarely experienced: good eats!

So, with that in mind, let’s begin with a twist on an old, traditional cake recipe where the butter is twice as sweet and the lemon is twice as zingy; Chubby Yummy’s Lemon Pound Cake. 

Enjoy it!

Recipe: Chubby Yummy’s Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients

1 cup of salted, sweet-butter (softened)

1/4 cup of butter popcorn oil (No Substitution)

2 1/2 cups of sugar

1 cup of milk

5 large eggs

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (sifted)

3 tsp. of pure lemon extract

1/4 cup of the lemon juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a Bundt pan. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar together. With the mixer running at medium speed, add the eggs one at a time. Add the lemon extract; working in alternating batches, and mixing after each addition, add the dry ingredients and 1/4 cup of the lemon juice to the butter mixture. Mix until just smooth.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake until raised in the center and a tester inserted into the center comes out dry and almost clean (a few crumbs are OK), 50 to 75 minutes. Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved.