King cakes
Three recipes, one meaning
King cake is a wonderful tradition with so much symbolism, not to mention flavor! The cake itself is more of a sweet bread (think enriched dough like cinnamon rolls) that you can fill with all sorts of different flavors. The cake is meant to symbolize the arrival of the Three Wise Men visiting Baby Jesus. It celebrates the Epiphany, or 12th night, after Christmas. Making, eating, or gifting a king cake is relevant from January 6th to the Mardi Gras celebrations that kick off the season of Lent.
Some folks hide a little plastic baby inside the cake. Tradition has it that anyone who finds the baby is crowned king or queen for the day, and then must host a party the next year.
In previous years, I've made a king cake (the one from Sugar Spun Run. But I wanted to see how other versions compared. I pulled up two other recipes - one from King Arthur, and the other from House of Nash Eats, to find out which one turned out the best. Truth is, they're all amazing! But there are noticeable differences in the recipes I chose.
The test.
One of the most fascinating parts of testing different king cake recipes is seeing how small changes on paper create dramatically different results in practice. For this post, I compared three popular recipes: one from
House of Nash Eats, one from
King Arthur Baking, and one from
Sugar Spun Run. Previously, I've made the one from Sugar Spun Run.
While all three follow roughly the same technique, the doughs behaved very differently and produced distinct final cakes.
The
King Arthur dough was by far the easiest to work with. It wasn’t sticky, held its shape beautifully straight out of the mixer, and stayed well-structured throughout the proofing process. From a baker’s perspective, this dough was predictable and forgiving—always a plus when working with enriched doughs. I also ordered an essential oil from King Arthur, which the baking company describes as a proprietary blend that has a unique flavor. It's called Fiori di Sicilia:
This potent ingredient, which translates to "flowers of Sicily," is a proprietary blend of essential oils with a unique flavor profile: an ethereal mix of citrus, vanilla, and floral notes. It's sourced in Italy, and the exact blend of oils is kept secret, adding to its intrigue — and may explain why it has an elusive, can’t-put-your-finger-on-it flavor. But that delicate floral flavor, which some bakers liken to an orange creamsicle, gives a burst of Sicilian sunshine to everything it touches. And it's particularly well-suited to springtime baking.
The House of Nash Eats dough, on the other hand, was much stickier and required more patience to handle. That said, it has a big payoff: the recipe yields two King Cakes, making it a great option if you’re baking for a crowd or want one cake to share and one to keep.
The
Sugar Spun Run recipe produced the largest King Cake of the three. The dough baked up into a generously sized, impressive centerpiece—exactly what you want when King Cake is the star of the table.
What really stood out to me is how these recipes, despite using similar methods and ingredients, resulted in cakes with such different personalities. It’s a perfect example of how baking is both a science and an art—and why King Cake traditions are so fun to explore year after year.
The pieces were shaped into ropes and rolled.
Each individual dough was cut into two pieces.
Each rolled piece was braided together with a 2-braid.
The filling and the frosting.
For the filling, there were several versions of the same thing, either cream cheese, or sugar and cinnamon.
I tried to divide these options up: for the double batch (House of Nash Eats) I did one cream cheese and one sugar and cinnamon. The King Arthur king cake had a cream cheese filling, whereas the Sugar Spun Run contained the sugar and cinnamon.
The only difference really was in the cream cheese. Where House of Nash eats called for cream cheese, milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract, King Arthur's called for cream cheese, granulated sugar, vanilla extract and one large egg (subbing granulated sugar for powdered sugar, adding the egg) and the Fiori di Sicilia. The cinnamon and sugar followed the traditional ingredients of butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.
The frosting was consistent in each one as well - powdered sugar, a few tablespoons of milk, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
Sugar Spun Run - the dough that yielded the largest baked cake.
King Arthur - the dough that was shaped inside a Bundt pan.
House of Nash Eats - the batch was divided into 2 cakes.
The result.
I liked each. I will say that the Bundt pan helped shape the already well-structured dough of the King Arthur recipe, and adding that Fiori di Sicilia put a different spin on the overall taste. I enjoyed the texture as well.
The other two are great also, with the shape of these taking on more of a "crown" look that king cake is meant to represent. The texture of the actual cake turned out a bit more crumby than King Arthur.
Testing these recipes side by side made one thing clear: while the technique may be similar, the meaning behind king cake runs much deeper than the recipe itself. Long before it became a Mardi Gras staple in bakeries and home kitchens, king cake was rooted in history, ritual, and celebration. To appreciate the cake, it helps to understand the tradition that shaped it.
Will you make one? Which one sounds the most appealing to try out?
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