Roscon De Reyes

My first crack at this very traditional Spanish sweet bread.  Also known as "King Cake" this is traditionally served at Christmas.  I have some good Spanish friends coming for dinner in a week's time so this was my practice run.  It's not Christmas but hey,  some things are too good to only have once a year !

This is a yeasted dough infused with flavours of orange and lemon zests, orange blossom water, apricot brandy and vanilla.  The top of the "crown" is adorned with glace fruits, candied orange peel, stem ginger and flaked almonds and a sprinkling of sugar dampened with more orange blossom water.

The crumb is soft and shreddy, on the way to being like a panettone but sufficiently not,  so as to have its own identity.   It is usually served with whipped cream, nata, custard or other cakey fillings and in my opinion, being a bready cake, one of those is definitely needed.

I only used half the quantity of the recipe I used and was very surprised how big this came out.  Looks like we'll be eating this daily until it disappears !