Drei Königskuchen – Three Kings Cake
Drei Königskuchen – Three Kings Cake; a fluffy, light, and sweet brioche-like bread perfect for breakfast or a sweet dinner, with a little surprise inside. Not only will your kids love it, but the entire family!
It’s a traditional yeast cake served on January 6th in Switzerland – the day of the three wise men.
Eat it as is, with some butter and or preserves like this Blueberry Vanilla Preserves – Konfi.
[Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. If you take action (i.e., make a purchase) after clicking on one of the links, I’ll earn some tea money, which I promise to drink while creating new content for you 🥰. You do not pay a higher price!]
There is a surprise inside
The king’s cake always has a little surprise baked into it – a little king figure hidden in one of the buns. If no king figure is available, some people use an almond nut or a bean instead.
The little king (or nut/bean) gets added before baking, and the person who finds the bun with the surprise inside will be the king for the day.
Crown the king
If you buy a Drei Königskuchen in a bakery, it always comes with a crown. Since they don’t have Three Kings Cake in the USA, we usually make our own; out of paper or thin cardboard. The person who finds the king gets the crown.
When I was little and either my mom or dad got the king, they would distract us kids and sneakily stick the little figure in one of our buns. Who doesn’t want to be a king/queen for the day?
It’s such a fun tradition! And, of course, in our family, the king somehow always ends up in one of our kids’ buns, too – magically 😉
E Guete (Bon appétit)!! Don’t forget to share some pictures with me and tell me how you liked this Drei Königskuchen – Three Kings Cake. It would make my day if you tag @mirjamskitchenyodel on Instagram, share on Facebook or pin on Pinterest.
You might also like:
Drei Königskuchen – Three Kings Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 500 g All-purpose flour
- 30 g Sugar
- 10 g Salt
- 2 tsp Instant dry yeast
- 320 g Whole milk
- 60 g Butter melted
- 1 tbsp Honey
- Almonds sliced
- Granular sugar
Instructions
- Add All-purpose flour, Instant dry yeast, salt, and sugar to your stand mixer and mix for a few seconds. Don't worry if you don't have one of these fancy kneaders, just use a big bowl instead.
- Carefully melt the butter in the microwave on the soft/melt setting or on low heat on the stove in a saucepan. Add milk, melted butter, and honey to the dry ingredients.
- Knead dry and wet ingredients together until you have a smooth, stretchy dough. If you use a stand mixer, start on slow speed for a while, then turn it to a fast rate for the last few minutes. If you knead by hand, do so for about 15-20min. I know it's a workout, but you need to work that dough until it is nice and smooth to achieve a light and airy bread.
- Form the dough into a ball. Place it in a big, lightly floured bowl and cover it up with a wet kitchen towel, or something similar, to keep it from drying out. Let it rest to rise for at least 1 ½ hours.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Preheat the oven to 392 Fahrenheit or 200 Celsius
- Take risen dough out of the bowl and onto a lightly floured surface.
- Take your kitchen scale and weigh eight small dough pieces and one bigger one for the middle. I made my small buns 50g each and the center bun 150g. That will give you some extra dough. I went ahead and made a second, smaller, Three Kings Cake. But you can also make bigger buns to use up all the dough for just one Königskuchen.
- Roll each dough piece into a ball. Place the king figure or a nut/bean in one of the small buns. Start with your center bun, and then add the eight smaller buns around it.
- Crack one egg into a small bowl and whisk it slightly. Brush the whole bread with the egg wash. Make sure you get every part of the bread, or it will bake with an uneven color.
- Let it rest for another 20min. Then brush it with egg wash again, and sprinkle granular sugar and a few sliced almonds over it.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let cool on a cooling rack.