Gluten Free King Cake

For those of you who aren't familiar, King Cake is a traditional New Orleans cake/bread filled with various things such as just cinnamon, caramel pecan, apples, cream cheese, and basically anything else that floats your boat. There is a small plastic baby that is placed somewhere in the cake, and the person who finds the baby has to make the next king cake. Being gluten-free your options of where you can purchase a king cake are very limited. There is a place in Metarie, named the Peace Baker, and they make a very good king cake (available all year round), however their king cake is very spongey, and isn't the same as the regular kind at the store (which has almost more of a cinnamon roll type center with the different layers etc). Don't get me wrong, this king cake is DELICIOUS, but I didn't think it was quite what I was looking for. However, I think this is a great option especially if you don't have the time/patience to make your own King Cake Here are some pictures from the King Cake I purchased from there.

I then however decided that it was time to learn to make my own King Cake. I tried making a gluten free King Cake last year and it turned out okay, but I tried to get all fancy and add apples to it, and it was my first one, and I don't think I let it rise enough so it didn't come out the way I had hoped. I thought I would give it another try this year using the same recipe, and allowing plenty of time for it to rise. I used the King Cake recipe from Gluten-Free on a Shoestring found here. And to make the Bread Flour using what they suggested I ended up using the Ultratex 3 version simply because that is what I had on hand. This king cake ended up turning out to be AMAZING! The only thing I did wrong was I didn't squeeze the two ends together enough so when I let it rise it kind of separated, and baked apart, but it didn't influence the taste of the king cake at all! I would say that this was definitely a success! I may keep experimenting with different King Cake recipes to find the best one, and to determine the best way to fill the King Cake. Here's a picture of my successful King Cake endeavor: