King Cake Showdown

Last year I made my very first king cake. It turned out well but I remember thinking it was a little dry so I wanted to try a new recipe this year. Of course, I didn't document what i did last year but I'm pretty sure it was based on Emeril's recipe so I looked elsewhere. I ended up borrowing most heavily from this blogger from Baton Rouge.

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast or 1 package instant yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter softened (1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon nutmeg
grated zest of one lemon (1 tablespoon)
2 1/2 cups flour

Filling:
10 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
colored sugars (green, purple and yellow)

It turned out really lovely, I do think it was still a bit dry for me, probably would reduce the flour by 1/4 cup next time. Other changes I made were adding cinnamon and vanilla to the dough. For the cream cheese filling, I used only about 8 ounces of cream cheese and paired it with guava jelly for a really tasty twist on a classic. I also halved the amounts for the icing, I thought that was way too much. I think the icing should just be a thin glaze. I also added some lemon juice and cinnamon to it because powdered sugar sort of tastes like chalk to me, it needs a bit of dressing up.

I'm trying to be good and stay away from sugar these days but I made this cake for a king cake competition that I ended up not attending due to a torrential downpour. So I had to eat it myself, how sad. I got lots of help from Ben and assorted friends at the Super Bowl party yesterday.