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Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

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Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread!

King Cake: Rosca de Reyes

(Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Regular Lavender and Lovage readers may remember that I entered a baking contest recently here: La Rosca de Reyes (King Cake) ~ For a Spanish Inspired Christmas & New Year, sadly I didn’t win, you can’t win them all, but I did come in as a credible second and that’s with no vote begging too, well not much, just a tweet or two when my post went live! A HUGE thanks to all of you who DID vote for me and for all of your wonderful comments on the contest post here: Revel with a Home-Made La Rosca de Reyes. I loved the challenge of devising a recipe as well as baking my Rosca de Reyes, and eating it of course! However, on the eve of Twelfth Night and Epiphany, I have decided to share the recipe with you all, here on my blog, so you can print it if you wish to make my authentic Spanish King Cake aka La Rosca de Reyes aka Three Kings Cake.

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night is the festival marking the coming of the Epiphany and concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas. In mediaeval and Tudor England, the Twelfth Night marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve — now more commonly known as Halloween. The Lord of Misrule symbolises the world turning upside down. On this day the King and all those who were high would become the peasants and vice versa. At the beginning of the Twelfth Night festival, a cake that contained a bean was eaten, and the person who found the bean would rule the feast. Midnight signalled the end of his rule and the world would return to normal. The common theme was that the normal order of things was reversed. This Lord of Misrule tradition dates back to pre-Christian European festivals such as the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia.

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Food and drink are the centre of the celebrations in modern times, and all of the most traditional ones go back many centuries. Around the world, special pastries and breads, such as Roscón de reyes, La Galette des Rois and King cake are baked on Twelfth Night, and are eaten for the Feast of the Epiphany celebrations. In English and French customs, a Twelfth Night cake was baked to contain a bean and a pea, so that those who received the slices containing them should be designated king and queen of the night’s festivities. In parts of Kent, there is a tradition that an edible decoration would be the last part of Christmas to be removed in the Twelfth Night and shared amongst the family.

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night is also a night that has inspired literature and plays; Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, or What You Will was written to be performed as a Twelfth Night entertainment with the earliest known performance taking place at Middle Temple Hall, one of the Inns of Court, on Candlemas night, 2 February 1602. The play has many elements that are reversed, in the tradition of Twelfth Night, such as a woman Viola dressing as a man, and a servant Malvolio imagining that he can become a nobleman. And, Robert Herrick’s poem Twelfe-Night, or King and Queene (published 1648) describes the election of king and queen by bean and pea in a plum cake, and the homage done to them by the draining of wassail bowls of “lamb’s-wool”, an English drink mainly attributed to Yorkshire made of apples with sugar, nutmeg, ginger and ale.

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

My delicious recipe is copied below for you; please do try this celebratory Spanish bread. The most time-consuming part of the whole baking process is the initial kneading, which I confess to doing in my Kenwood mixer this time! You then just pop the dough into a big bowl, cover it and leave it overnight to prove and double in volume, before shaping and decorating, (great fun!) and proving once more before baking. This recipe will feed 12 to 16 people of varying ages and appetites. Don’t forget to add your little trinket or a dried bean is also traditional.  Have a wonderful Twelfth Night, and don’t forget to celebrate Three King’s Day this festive period, it’s fun and extends the Christmas holidays just that little bit further!  Karen 

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

King Cake: La Rosca de Reyes

Print recipe
King Cake: La Rosca de Reyes
Serves 12 to 16
Prep time 24 hours
Cook time 40 minutes
Total time 24 hours, 40 minutes
Allergy Egg, Milk, Wheat
Dietary Vegetarian
Meal type Bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Side Dish, Snack
Misc Child Friendly, Freezable, Gourmet, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
Occasion Casual Party, Christmas, Formal Party
Region Spanish
By author Karen S Burns-Booth
La Rosca de Reyes or Roscón de Reyes is a Spanish and Latin American king’s cake, similar to French brioche or Italian Panettone, traditionally eaten to celebrate Epiphany on the 6thJanuary.This recipe will feed 12 to 16 people of varying ages and appetites. Don’t forget to add your little trinket or a dried bean is also traditional.

Ingredients

Bread/Cake

  • 450g strong white bread flour
  • 75g caster sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 75g softened butter
  • 2 large free-range eggs, or 3 medium free-range eggs
  • 1 x 7g easy blend yeast sachets
  • 150ml milk, tepid
  • Zest of 2 lemons
  • Zest of 2 clementines or 2 small oranges

Decoration and Topping

  • 75g softened butter
  • 75g icing sugar
  • 100g plain white flour
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons orange flower/blossom water to mix
  • 100g candied fruits and nuts, such as cherries, peel and whole almonds

Note

La Rosca de Reyes or Roscón de Reyes is a Spanish and Latin American king’s cake, similar to French brioche or Italian Panettone, traditionally eaten to celebrate Epiphany on the 6thJanuary.This recipe will feed 12 to 16 people of varying ages and appetites. Don’t forget to add your little trinket or a dried bean is also traditional.

Directions

Step 1 Place the dried ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attached and then add the rest of the ingredients and mix on low speed for 3 to 4 minutes. Then increase the speed to medium and mix for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the dough is shiny and very elastic. Alternatively, knead by hand for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Step 2 Allow to prove overnight in a cool but not cold place, covered with oiled Clingfilm and a clean tea towel.
Step 3 Take the dough out of the bowl and cut into 3 even sized pieces; roll them into balls and then roll them into long sausage shapes, this can be done by throwing the dough on to the table! (Make sure you are working on a floured surface) Insert the trinket or dried bean into one sausage, and then lay them on the floured board and plait them, before making a ring and joining them together with a little flour and water.
Step 4 Place the plaited ring on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and then make the topping.
Step 5 Mix the butter, icing sugar and flour together and then add the orange flower water to make a stiff paste. Decorate the Rosca de Reyes by spooning the topping on in segments around the ring and placing candied fruit and nuts in-between. Cover and allow to prove for 1 hour, or until the ring has nearly doubled in size.
Step 6 Bake in a pre-heated oven 160 C Fan/180C/Gas Mark 4 for 30 to 40 minutes; the cake is ready when it is golden brown, well risen, and sounds hollow when tapped underneath. Allow to cool on a wire rack before eating at room temperate and warning your guests about the trinket or dried bean!
Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

La Rosca de Reyes or Roscón de Reyes is a Spanish and Latin American king’s cake, similar to French brioche or Italian Panettone, traditionally eaten to celebrate Epiphany on the 6th January. The date is also known as Three King’s Day, which happens twelve days after Christmas and marks the end of the Christmas period in Spain. In Spain and Mexico, Three King’s Day is just as important as Christmas day itself, especially for the children, as this is when they receive their presents! For me, it symbolises a gift in a cake, as it is such a pretty dessert and I find that both commercial and home-made versions make wonderful and thoughtful gifts.

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Twelfth Night, Epiphany and Delicious Bread! King Cake: Rosca de Reyes (Recipe)

Have a GREAT Twelfth Night!

Twelfth Night

Do you take your decorations down on the 5th or the 6th of January?

 

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Comments

  10. Laura Loves Cakes says

    Well done for coming second…still a great achievement! I do like the look of this…I would have liked to have made an epiphany cake but sadly no time…maybe I’ll book mark your recipe for next year…only 364 days to go! 🙂

    Reply

  14. Elizabeth Smith says

    This sounds amazing. I’m going through a spell of cooking with yeast – it’s like alchemy! This is definitely on my list of things to bake, once I find some cheaper glace cherries. The small pots have suddenly gone up 21p.

    Reply

  17. Isabel O'Brien says

    I’ve never seen anything like that before, it looks a bit like bread from the outside but then when you see it cut into slices it looks like cake.

    Reply

  18. Alicia Roberts says

    One of the most remarkable looking cakes I’ve seen!

    A bit late for twelfth night but I’l be giving it a try anyway 🙂

    Reply

  21. Dee says

    That looks amazing! its a piece of artwork rather than just a cake. I would love to try this recipe. Im sure my kids would love it.. thank you for sharing x

    Reply

  27. Donna Sadler says

    Wow! What a lovely looking cake! I’ve never heard of that until now, I think I’m going to give it a go! 🙂 xx

    Reply

  29. Dee Johnson says

    Sat here watching masterchef and they are in Hestan Bluminthals (if thats how its spelt) restaurant the fat duck. The first thing i thought of was this cake. It really should be on his menu. Its really fab.

    Reply

  38. Hazel Rea says

    Looks gorgeous – maybe I should adapt that to glutentree as my son’s birthday is on Epiphany. To have a break between Christmas and his birthday we take our decorations down on New Year’s Eve but this colourful cake would carry a bit of festive joy right through.

    Reply

  43. Tracy Nixon says

    Wonderful recipe for Christmas thank you! I have printed this off so I can buy in the ingredients! I love cooking and baking on the run up to Christmas! I put on my holly pinny and Christmas CDs and dance around the kitchen like a looney lol!

    Reply

  50. Donna Hardin says

    In America we have Yeast packets that are premium instant yeast (21 g a packet) or a jar of yeast that is active dry yeast. Do you have a suggestion on the amount of yeast to use? This looks to yummy to not give it a try. Thanks

    Reply

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