Today is the 6th of January and in Spain – as well as in other Latin American countries – they celebrate the day of the Reyes magos (three kings). While in Slovenia this day goes by unnoticed (religous people usually go to the church, but that’s it), in Spain the three kings mean a lot more, at least for the children – because they are the ones that bring presents. Of course, nowadays this feast is -unfortunately- pretty much ruled by the commercial centres, same as Christmas and others, but there is one thing that caught my attention while living in Spain, namely on this day people buy and eat a special round cake that has a little present hidden in it. I liked the idea and this year I decided to bake it myself at home for the first time.
I looked a bit around but the recipes I found didn’t serve me much, so I ended up improvising, like I do most of the time. I started yesterday at 9am and finished around 4pm, with the kitchen upside down, tired but happy with the final result. It wasn’t bad for the 1st time, I’d say! I hope you’ll agree with me.

The cake’s real name is Roscón de reyes which could be translated as “king-size donut thing” “king cake”, in some Latin countries also called rosca, der Dreikönigskuchen in Germany and la galette des Rois in France. Basically we’re talking about a type of brioche, formed in wheel, topped with icing and candied fruits and filled with pastry cream. After baking , they stuff one little trinket inside it, usually a plastic figurine of the baby Jesus (or any other) and a dry bean.
The one that stumbles upon the figurine in his slice of cake, is being granted some privileges, while the one that gets the bean, has to pay the roscón next year -or bake it-.
And now, to the recipe.

The cake:
600g of flour (I used white emmer flour)
3 large eggs
25g of fresh baker’s yeast
200ml of warm milk
100g of butter, melted
a pinch of salt
50ml of Cuban rum
2 tablespoons of orange blossom water
100g of blond cane sugar
grated peel of one lemon
blond cane sugar for sprinkling
1 egg yolk for brushing

Candied fruit:
the peel of an orange and lemon + a couple of lemon circles
a couple of kumquats
water (the weight of the fruit)
blond cane sugar(the weight of the fruit)
the seeds of 1 vanilla bean, scraped out

Cinnamon pastry cream:
300ml of full fat milk
1 cinnamon stick
50g of blond cane sugar
40g of flour (you can use 20g of flour, 20g of corn starch)
3 egg yolks

In a bowl, mix the yeast with couple of tablespoons of warm milk, add 100g of flour and stir until obtaining a soft mixture, shaped into a ball. Cover with a damp kitchen cloth and let rest for an hour or so.
In other bowl, put the rest of flour, create a crater in the middle and crack the eggs inside, add the sugar, the rest of milk, butter, a pinch of salt, grated lemon peel, rum and orange blossom water.

Stir well until it starts detaching from the bowl, then use your hands to work the dough on the working surface. After some minutes add the yeast mixture and continue working the dough for additional 15 minutes. Add more flour if needed.

The dough should not stick to the working surface. Transfer the dough back to the bowl and cover it with a wet kitchen cloth. Keep it away from draught and let it rise for 3 hours.

In the meantime prepare the candied fruit. I actually recommend you do this step on the previous day; like this you avoid the hurry and have a little rest before the final step. Since I didn’t do so, we ended up having lunch at 5pm because I didn’t have time to cook before.

After blanching the peels, make a syrup: boil the water with sugar until the latter dissolves, then add the peels/fruit and cook on a moderate heat for about 30 minutes. The peels have to become translucent. Ideally they should dry over night, but there’s no problem if you are making them just before using them.

Now it’s time for the big moment: the dough is ready to be shaped into roscón. Preheat the oven to 160ºC Shape the dough as round as you can and place it on the baking tray, previously covered with baking paper. Brush it with egg yolk, mixed with a little water. I warn you, the dough can be a sneaky thing and it can rise where you don’t want it to, so to be sure you get a round shaped cake with a nice hole in the middle, insert a little round cup like I did, to prevent that.

Bake it for half / three quarters of hour, or until it becomes nicely brown on top. Few minutes before finishing, take the cake out and decorate it with the candied fruit and sprinkle with some sugar. The recipes I found, called for the icing at the beginning, before placing the cake into oven, but knowing my oven, I knew it was better to do that at the end because I didn’t want to end up with burnt fruit.

Once the roscón is baked, place it on a cooling rack and prepare the pastry cream.
Boil milk with cinnamon stick and set aside to let the milk infuse the aroma. Beat the egg yolks with sugar until it’s pale in colour. Sift the flour and corn starch -if you’re using it- together, then add to the eggs and stir in gently. You’ll get a smooth paste.
Now poor the milk into the egg mixture slowly and whisk constantly. Remove the cinnamon stick and pour the mixture back to the saucepan and cook over medium heat. Whisk constantly for about a minute until the mixture thickens so much that it’s difficult to do it.

Remove from heat. The mixture we got is called pastry cream, a type of custard widely used by confectioners all over the world. In case you’re not using the cream right away, immediately cover it with plastic film and refrigerate up to 3 days. You can replace the cinnamon with vanilla or more sofisticated aromas, such as, for example those used by the great Pierre Hermé.

Cut the roscón horizontally and first hide inside the figurine and the bean, wrapped in plastic or aluminium foil, then spread the pastry cream over it. Finish by covering the roscón with the other part.

We were so eager to try it that we couldn’t wait till today. Juanpi was the lucky one – he found the figurine straight in his 1st slice. We both agree that it’s very delicious!