Elvis King Cake

A King Cake is a traditional New Orleans cake eaten at Mardi Gras. This variation involves a peanut butter and banana filling instead of the traditional nuts and cinnamon, and a marshmallow icing with bacon garnish.

Elvis King Cake

The recipe for this was pulled from two places. I had made the New York Times recipe for King Cake before and really enjoyed it, so I stuck with that dough, and then used a recipe I found on the internet to make the filling and topping.

Dough: (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017231-king-cake?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page&region=all&rank=20)

Filling/Topping: https://andrewzimmern.com/2014/03/03/donald-links-elvis-king-cake/

Unfortunately, the dough and the filling came in disproportionate amounts. There was far too much filling for the dough, I only used about 1/2-2/3 of what I had made. I do not want to halve the recipe, because I do not know if it will work as well overall, so I haven't. Mess with the quantities at your own risk, or enjoy the extra filling as a snack or a sweet spread.

This cake was a mission to make. It took me about 4 1/2 hours from start to finish, and there was not much down time. While the dough was rising, there was filling and icing to be made. It was an excellent way to spend my morning.

Ingredients:

Dough:

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast*

1/3 cup warm whole milk

1 cup + 6 Tbsp bread flour

1 Tbsp (22g) honey

3/4 cup cake flour

In the UK cake flour is not really a thing, so I just use self-raising flour, it works fine

2 large eggs and 1 egg yolk

2 Tbsp white sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp salt

4 Tbsp butter (57g) soft

Peanut Butter and Banana Filling:

2 bananas

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1 Tbsp corn starch*

5 egg yolks at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup (250g) smooth peanut butter

Egg Wash:

1 egg

1 Tbsp milk

Marshmallow Icing

1 cup chopped raw bacon

If in the UK use streaky bacon

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

1/4 cup water

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup (110 grams) light corn syrup*

4 1/2 sheets gelatine

Instructions:

Dough:

Warm the milk, and dissolve the yeast with 6 Tbsp of the flour and the honey

I used a double boiler and warmed the milk and honey together, this worked well

Combine until smooth, c. 30 seconds

Cover with plastic wrap, leave in a warm place to rise for 20 minutes or until doubled

Put the starter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment

Add 3/4 cup bread flour, cake flour (or self-raising if using), eggs and yolk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and almond extracts and salt and combine on low speed

Switch to a dough hook and kneed for 2 minutes on medium speed

Turn the speed to med-high and add the butter 1 Tbsp at a time, mixing after each addition

Mix until the dough becomes a slack tacky ball

Add up to 1/4 cups more bread flour if needed

The first picture is the dough before the butter was added, the second is after the butter, and the the third is the finished dough. I had to add about 2 Tbsp more flour

Transfer dough to a greased bowl, cover, let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled

My kitchen is not always warm, so I put the dough to rise by the heater and rotated it after 30 minutes. The first picture shows the dough pre-rise, and the third is the risen final dough

Filling: While the dough is doing its 1hr rise, make the filling

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C

Peel bananas, slice vertically and arrange on a baking sheet

Sprinkle with the light brown sugar, and roast for 20 minutes, set aside

The pictures below show the bananas pre and post cook

Combine corn starch with 2 Tbsp sugar and whisk in 1/4 cup milk

Add egg yolks and vanilla extract and mix until completely smooth

The two steps above are pictured below

Combine 3/4 cup milk with 2 Tbsp sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar

These images show the stages of boiling milk

Temper the egg yolk mixture by adding c. 1/3 cup of the hot milk to it, stirring constantly

Slowly return the egg mixture to the pan with the hot milk, stirring constantly with a whisk

Continue cooking over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring at all times

The two pictures show the stages of boiling the pastry cream. The second one is blurry because I am trying to stir and photograph at the same time

Pour the pastry cream in a bowl, cover with cling film and chill in the refrigerator

These are the finished pastry cream and the covered pastry cream

Using a paddle attachment, cream the banana until broken up but still chunky.

The banana needed a little bit of encouragement to come off the baking paper

Add the peanut butter and beat until combined, and then beat in the pastry cream**

Assembly:

Cover a work surface with a sheet of baking paper, at least 2.5 ft long

Lightly dust it with flour, and turn the dough onto it

Roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 8 x 24 x 1/2 inch

Spread filling along the length of the rectangle

Tightly roll, seam side down if you can

Seal any visible seams, and bring the dough into a circle, pinching the ends together.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour in a hot room

This cake below is fully risen

Egg Wash:

Combine the egg and milk in a bowl

Using a pastry brush (or your hands) over the cake

Bake:

Preheat the oven to 370˚F/190˚C

Transfer the cake to a baking sheet (I just drag the paper from the work surface onto a baking tray and trim the edges, it's the best way to avert disaster)

Bake 20-30 minutes or until golden brown

Rotate and cover with foil as necessary

The first pictures shows when I knew to rotate, and the second when I knew to cover it

Remove and let cool 5-10 minutes

Marshmallow Icing:

You can make this when the cake is finished, I managed to bake the bacon while it was rising and finish the icing as it baked.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚c

Toss chopped bacon in sugar, bake for 15 minutes until sugar is melted and bacon is cooked

Turn onto a paper towel to remove excess fat and grease, set aside

Place the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water, and let bloom for 9-10 minutes

Once soft, wring out excess water and set aside

These two pictures show the blooming gelatine and the soft gelatine

In a saucepot, stirring ocassionally, heat the water, sugar and corn syrup on medium heat until the mixture reaches 242˚F/117˚C. This took longer than I thought, c. 25 minutes

I used a candy thermometer for this, and the pictures below show the stages of heating

Remove from heat, and let the mixture cool to 210˚F/99˚C

Pour into a stand mixer and whisk until foamy, c. 4-5 minutes

This is the stage I decided it was 'foamy'

Add the bloomed gelatine and whisk for 10 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy

This is what the finished icing should look like

Final Assembly:

Spread the icing over the cake, and top with bacon

Spreading the icing was extremely difficult, I wound up giving up and just using my fingers

You're done!

I await reviews on the finished product, I took it to a bake sale

*A note on ingredients

The three images below show the ingredients I used:

1. Yeast: I had trouble with fast acting dry yeast in the past, and found I was wasting a lot trying to get quantities right. So I tried easy bake yeast, and it worked very well.

2. Corn starch: This is not something commonly found or used in the UK. I ordered it on amazon.

3. Corn syrup: Also not common in the UK. It is terrible for you, high fructose corn syrup in a bottle. I bought this in America and brought it back to the UK. You can also buy it on amazon. I do not know why the full image isn't available, but the standard brand is Karo.

** If I make this recipe again, I will only use half the pastry cream for less filling overall and a stronger peanut butter and banana flavour.