Mini Mardi Gras King Cakes

A miniature version of a season cake that's stuffed with scratch-made Bavarian cream cheese, cinnamon, sugar, in a yeasty dough and topped with a thick sweet icing and purple, green and gold sugar.

It is now Mardi Gras season in Southeast Louisiana and we now have all the good stuff out. My favorite has to King Cakes.

We call King Cakes stuffed if there is more than the normal cinnamon and sugar. You can get cream cheese, Creole cream cheese, Bavarin cream, chocolate, strawberry and many, many more.

My favorite has to be either plain or Bavarian cream cheese. It is like a pastry cream, but not as sweet.

With the King Cake it is tradition to have a tiny plastic baby in stuffed in the cake and if you get the piece that has it you have to buy the next King Cake

Recipes you may like:
Banana Fosters Pound Cake
Mardi Gras Cookies
King Cake Bread
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Mini Mardi Gras King Cakes

Time:
Prep- 30 minutes 
Proofing- 2 hours
Baking- 30 minutes

Ingredients

King Cake Dough
4 1/2 to 5 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour or Bread Flour
1 Tablespoon Dry Active Yeast
1/4 cup Warm Water 
1 cup Warm Milk
1/4 cup Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
2 Tablespoons Honey or Granulated Cane Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Fine Sea Salt
2 large eggs

Bavarian Cream Cheese Filling
1 cup Granulated Cane Sugar
3/4 cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour
3 cups Whole Milk 
3 egg yolks
2 Tablespoons Butter
3 1/2 ounces Cream Cheese
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1/2 cup Heavy Cream

Cinnamon Sugar 
1/2 cup Granulated Cane Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

Glaze
3 cups Confectioners' Sugar
3 to 4 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste
Pint of Salt
Purple, Green and Gold sanding sugar

1. In a medium size cup, combine honey or sugar and warm water until dissolved.  In a large bowl, combine 4 1/2 cups flour, yeast on one side and salt on the other. Add in the sugar water and two eggs. Mix until just combined.
2. Using a stand mixer with a hook or hand mixer, mix for 5 to 7 minutes and slowly add in warm milk. If you are mixing by hand, you will have to kneed the dough for 10 minutes on a floured surface.
3. Cover and let if proof for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until it has doubled.
4. Bavarian Cream Cheese Filling- in a medium sauce whisk together sugar, flour and salt. Add in milk.  In a separate bowl beat egg yolks then add to the pan. Add to the milk sugar mixture. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat until it is thick about 5 to 7 minutes. Whisking constantly so it won't burn on the bottom. 
5. Take it off the heat, add vanilla and butter and whisk until well mixed. Once the butter is well mixed add in cream cheese until well mixed. Cover with cling wrap and press again the custard so it won't develop a skin. Place in the fridge to chill completely. Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks. Fold into the cooled mixture and chill until using.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degree and cover two cookie sheet with parchment.
6. Tip the proof dough onto a lightly floured then roll out to an 18 inch by 12 in rectangle.  Spread the Bavarian cream 2/3 the way of the dough.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture and pat into the cream. Fold into an envelope and pinch the sides.
7.  Mark the stripes to 6 inch by 1 inch. Cut with a sharp knife or pizza cutter. Twist the stripes then bring the ends together pinching them together. Place on the cookie sheet. Once a cookie sheet fills up place in the fridge and chill for 25 minutes.
8. Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and let cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes then let cool complete on a wired rack.
9. Whisk glaze together until thick. Sprinkle sandy sugar in the pattern of purple, green and gold and sometimes purple again. Let the glaze set for about 30 minutes. Store in a cool area.
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