English Twelfth Night Cake Recipes

ENGLISH TWELFTH NIGHT CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until pale and lemon-colored.
• In a separate bowl beat the eggs. Add the eggs and brandy to the butter-sugar mixture. Stir in the flour and spices and mix thoroughly. Add the raisins, almonds and good-luck bean. Mix thoroughly.
• Butter a 12-inch cake tin and line it with buttered wax paper. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for three hours. If the top browns too much during cooking, cover with foil.

TWELFTH NIGHT OR KING'S CAKE

Steps:

• To make the Cake, take a pound and a half of the above-mentioned quality of flour, and put it in a wooden bread trough. Make a hole in the center of the flour, and put in a half ounce of yeast, dissolved in a little warm water.Add milk or tepid water to make the dough, using milk if you want it to be very rich and delicate, and water if you have not the milk. Knead and mix the flour with one hand, while adding milk or water with the other. Make a dough that is neither too stiff or too soft, and when perfectly smooth set the dough to rise in a moderately warm place, covering with a cloth. Remember that if you use milk to make the dought it must be scalded, that is, must be heated to the boiling point, and then allowed to grow tepid.
• Let the dough rise for five or six hours, and, when increased to twice its bulk, take it and add the reserved half pound of flour, into which you will have sifted the salt. Add six eggs, beaten very light with the sugar and butter, and mix all well together, kneading lightly with your hands, and adding more eggs if the dough is a little stiff.
• Then knead the dough by turning it over on itself three times, and set to rise again for an hour or three-quarters of an hour. Cover with a cloth. At the end of this time take it up and work it again lightly, and then form into a great ring, leaving of course, a hole in the center. Pat gently and flatten a little. Have ready a baking pan, with a buttered sheet of paper in it, and set the central roll in the middle.
• Cover the pan with a clean, stiff cloth, and set the Cake to rise for an hour longer. When well risen, set in an oven a few degrees cooler than that used for baking bread (360°); let bake for an hour and a half; if medium, an hour, and if very small, a half hour. Glace the Brioche lightly with a beaten egg, spread lightly over the top before placing in the oven. Decorate with dragees (French: a small candy), caramels, etc.

TWELFTH NIGHT CAKE OR KING CAKE(GALETTE DES ROIS)

Steps:

• On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 block of puff pastry to form a 10-inch square. Using a sharp knife, cut out a 10-inch round, using a dinner plate as a guide.
• Repeat this step with the second block of puff pastry.
• To make the filling, combine milk, butter, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch. Add the three lightly beaten eggs and mix until well blended.
• Cook in a pot at low heat stirring continually until it thickens or prepare this in the microwave stopping from time to time to stir it (I prefer to prepare this in the microwave).
• Now take from the heat away, add grated lemon zest, rum and ground almonds.
• Stir all together well.
• To assemble, place the undecorated round of pastry on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Spread almond filling over the circle, leaving a 1-inch border. Using a pastry brush, glaze the border with lightly beaten egg.
• Place a trinket or dried bean in the filling.
• Place the second round of pastry over the filling, pressing the edges to seal.
• Using a sharp paring knife, decorate one round with "s" cuts, like swirly spokes going from the centre to the edge of the round or make some cuts "v" shaped cuts with scissors.
• Glaze the top with lightly beaten egg.
• Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Remove and bake for 30 minutes, or until the pastry has puffed up and is golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Decorate with the gold paper crown.
• Note: if it is your first time observing this tradition, don't forget to warn everyone about the hidden charm or bean!