Today we celebrate the feast of the Three Kings. Of course I followed my invitation and baked a King Cake, too.

Already last year I made very special Three Kings Cake. This year it's a crossover King Cake. The dough is similar to the Swiss Dreikönigskuchen, the filling is taken from the French Galette de rois and it's shaped like a Spanish Roscón de Reyes. Pure crossover, isn't it?

Crossover King Cake
makes 1

475 g flour
1 tsp gluten
1 1/2 tbs sugar
1 tbs vanilla sugar
1 tsp salt
60 g butter, softened
15 g fresh yeast
80 g orange juice
70-90 g water, lukewarm
1 1/2 eggs

Almond filling
50 g butter
50 g sugar
1 egg
6 drops almond extract
1 tsp rum
125 g ground almond

1 almond as trinket

Glaze and topping
1/2 egg and 1/2 tsp water for glaze
almond flakes

Dissolve yeast in 50 g of the water. Mix flour dissolved yeast and rest of the ingredients mix on low speed 1.5 (Bosch MUM 8) for 3 minutes. Mix another 7 minutes on a higher speed 2 (Bosch MUM 8)until it is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning it once to grease the top. Cover and allow the dough to rise in a warm, draft free place until double in bulk (approximately one hour).

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and roll each piece into a 25 cm long cylinder. Roll each piece into a rectangle.

Spread the filling on every rectangle, leave a border of 1 cm and don't forget to add the trinket (in my case an almond).

Roll up the rectangles lengthwise.

Twist the two cylinders and form a ring.

Place ring on a baking sheet and let it rise until double in bulk in a warm draft free place (approximately one hour). Preheat oven to 200 C.

Mix the reserved single egg yolk with the 1/2 tsp of cold water and brush the top of the ring with the mixture. Sprinkle with almond flakes and bake for about 27 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

This morning we enjoyed some slices of the cake for breakfast and guess who got the trinket? Y. and me, by coincidence we halved the almond.