Berlin King Cake (Koenigskuchen)
Berlin's version of Koenigskuchen, the traditional cake to celebrate Three King's Day, honoring the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem to present their gifts. This yeasted cake is a winter dessert featuring dried fruit — currants, raisins and candied lemon peel.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 packet vanilla sugar .3 oz
- grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1 pinch salt
- 4 eggs
- 5 tsp baking powder
- 5 cups flour
- 4 oz milk
- 4 tbsp brandy or rum
- 5 oz currants
- 5 oz raisins
- 2 oz candied lemon peel
- breadcrumbs for the pan
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy, add the sugar with vanilla sugar, lemon zest and salt, and beat everything together until the mixture is creamy.
- Add the eggs to the mixture one by one, stirring until creamy. Mix together the baking powder and flour, and fold into the mixture. Stir together the milk and alcohol, then pour the liquid into the batter and mix. The batter should tear heavily as it falls from the spoon.
- Fold in the currants, raisins and candied peel into the batter.
- Grease a loaf pan and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Fill the pan with the batter and smooth out the surface a bit.
- Bake the cake at 350° F/180°C for about 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven, let cool slightly and turn out onto a cooling rack. When fully cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar.