The King's Cake

 It is the Feast of the Epiphany; the day of the kings - but before that we need to wander back from our misdirection and follow the rail line towards Murcia - the city.  We will cross the line. Google says we can.  The photo shows the line in 2018.  Does Google think this this is prior to 2018 or has a crossing been made since.  We may never know.




Merry Christmas!  The Kings are coming to town.  Yesterday many communities will have had a parade. Sweets will be thrown.  Adults will embarrass themselves scrabbling for them and pushing small children out of the way. 




Today is presents day; a day to drink hot chocolate, eat turron and Roscon de Reyes.  

To make it you will need 500g plain flour, 10gdried yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 2 beaten egg yolks, a pinch of salt, 100g butter, 275 ml milk, 300ml whipped cream, dried fruit, 12 glazed cherries, 2 tbsp sugar, 3 dried oranges, sliced into quarters; 3 tbsp flaked almonds and3 tbsp of golden sugar.


For the orange glaze you need 3 tbsp sugar and the juice of and orange.



To make the dough, add the flour, yeast, sugar & salt to a bowl. Add the wet ingredients before bringing the dough together into a slightly sticky smooth ball.



Place the dough into an oiled mixing bowl, cover firmly and leave in a warm place to prove for around an hour, or until doubled in size.



Once the dough has doubled in size, shape it to form a ball. Take 120g of the dough and form into 6 equal sized balls. Form the remaining dough into a round ring shape. Leave the dough to prove for around 30 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 190c/170fan/gas 5/350f.  Roll out the retained balls of dough into 15cm long oblongs.  Turn the dough out onto a lined baking sheet. Glaze generously with egg yolk. Add the oblong sheets at intervals.  Sprinkle with flaked almonds and add sugar crystals to the top.  Embed the cherries and other glace fruits of your choice lightly into the surface. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden and well risen.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack.

Mix the juice of the orange and sugar to form a sticky glaze.  One cooled, using a pastry brush evenly stroke the surface of the cake with the glaze. Top with a light dusting of additional sugar.

We will wander among the fields, full of cake and ready for  a new year.


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