Gluten-Free King Cake #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #MardiGras

  Libby Klein  I've always seen these brightly colored king cakes in the bakery, but I've never been able to try them because they don't come gluten-free. This year, I finally worked up the nerve to just make one myself. I was surprised to find out that this is just a giant cinnamon roll. It's not really a cake at all. I used a recipe that said either fill the dough with cinnamon and sugar, or a cream cheese pecan mixture. I went with the cream cheese and pecans because it seemed fancier. I think I would have liked just the spices. I also used a spice blend called speculoos. It's a combination of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, anise, ginger, and cardamom. You can just use cinnamon for a more traditional flavor.

The tradition says that you put a little plastic baby inside the cake, and whoever gets the baby has to buy next year's king cake. I left the baby out because one - I am the only one here eating this thing so I'll have to make it again next year anyway. And two - I'd be that one person in a million who would cut that baby in half. I once swallowed my crown because I thought it was a walnut in my oatmeal. 

If you put the baby in - or if you've ever been the lucky one to get the baby in your slice - let me know.

Gluten-Free Mardi Gras King Cake

Yield: 1 cake

Ingredients:

Dough

1/2 cup milk

1 3/4 cups gluten-free one-to-one flour blend
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tbsp plus 1 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 Tbsp psyllium husk powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sour cream
6 Tbsp soft butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
zest of 1 lemon

Filling

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 large egg

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

Glaze

2 cups gluten-free powdered sugar

3 Tbsp milk

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Green, Yellow, and Purple decorating sugars

Directions:

For the Dough

Heat the milk to just barely warm. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the dry ingredients. Whisk around to combine. Using a dough hook or metal beater, add the warm milk, followed by the sour cream, soft butter, egg, lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest. Beat until a soft dough forms. It will be very sticky. Scrape dough into the center of the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let proof until doubled in size.

Make the Filling

Beat the cream cheese with the egg, sugar, cinnamon, and Vanilla. Fold in the toasted pecans. Set aside.

Prepare the Cake

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9" spring form pan.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the filling down the lower half of the middle of the dough lengthwise. So not in the middle, and not all the way at the bottom. You want to be able to wrap the very bottom 1/4 of the dough over the filling. Then roll the dough over the filling into a log. I made a quick egg wash because I was afraid of the filling spilling out. Also, notice how I crimped both ends of the dough. You don't want the filling going all the way end to end either. 

Once you have a log, gently lift it into your prepared spring form pan and form a ring. Overlap the ends and crimp together. Be sure you don't roll your dough too thin. You can see mine had a rip on top. I added a piece of greased foil to the spot to keep the filling from running out. 

Now set this somewhere warm to double in size. I really like putting it in my oven with a pan of just boiled water below it. Remove the ring before baking so you'll get even browning.

Bake in a 350-degree preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

I've taken off my foil patches. You can see how my dough wasn't thick enough, but I'll cover all that with my glaze. Let this cool, and if you're shoving that plastic baby inside - now is the time.

Make the Glaze

Mix the powdered sugar, milk, melted butter, lemon juice, and vanilla together until a smooth but thick pourable glaze forms. Spoon over the top of the cooled cake. sprinkle with your Mardi Gras sugars.

Other than the rip in the dough, I was really excited about how this turned out. It rose beautifully and had a great texture that you would not know was gluten-free. I think the next time I'll just make the cinnamon and sugar filling. Don't forget to let me know what you think!

Gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are looking forward to a quiet, homey Christmas at their B&B in Cape May, but unfortunately, death isn’t taking a holiday this year . . .

Ever since Thanksgiving, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery of the romantic kind. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn't labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all.

 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her

classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/