The recipe for the Three Kings' Cake, to make it successfully at home

The Three Kings' Cake is a must on January 6th, and if you're feeling adventurous, making it at home is easy, as explained by chef and pastry enthusiast Oriol Sabé, from the Can Marco restaurant in Sant Esteve de Palautordera.

A fun fact: did you know that the cardboard crown on the Three Kings' Cake was the idea of pastry chef Antoni Escribà, of the Escribà pastry shop (now run by one of his sons, Christian Escribà)? As Christian Escribà always explains, his father thought of adding it to the cakes in 1957, after seeing that France did it with theirs. King cakes

And now, here is the best recipe for the Three Kings' Cake, homemade and easy to make.

Ingredients for six people

• 500g of strong flour
• 10 g of freeze-dried yeast (or 18 g of fresh yeast)
• 150 g of milk
• 25g of chestnut liqueur
• 25g of Cointreau
• 3 g of salt
• 70 g of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 75g of butter
• Zest of one lemon and zest of one orange

For the marzipan

• 150 g of sugar
• 200g roasted and peeled chestnuts (or 200g almond flour; if you choose this option, then 200g sugar instead of 150g)
• 1 egg white

Making the Three Kings' Cake

1. Place the ingredients in a bowl: the flour, sugar, salt, and liqueurs. Add the milk and yeast to the bowl where the salt isn't, on the other side, because salt can reduce the effectiveness of the yeast.
2. Knead the ingredients in the bowl. Then continue kneading on the kitchen counter.
3. You should knead it for ten minutes straight. Keep flattening the dough with your hands and folding it until you notice it takes on a different texture.
4. Add the zest of the lemon and orange peels.
5. Continue kneading the dough, then add the butter and continue working it until the dough, when stretched, forms a curtain, which means the gluten has developed. To check this, sprinkle some flour on the work surface, take a piece of dough, and stretch it out.
6. Let it ferment for two hours straight.
7. Meanwhile, make the marzipan. In an electric food processor, finely chop the roasted and peeled chestnuts. Place them in a bowl, add the sugar and an egg white. Work the mixture until it reaches a marzipan-like consistency. Refrigerate for the same amount of time the dough is rising, that is, two hours.
8. After two hours, flour the table and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Once rolled out, place the marzipan at one end of the dough. At each end of the marzipan, place the figures, the king, and the bean. Then, wrap it up. Finally, shape the dough, leaving a hollow in the center.
9. Where one end of the dough ends, pass it over the other, so that they are well tied.
10. Place it on the oven tray, where you have previously placed parchment paper.
11. Paint the dough with a brush dipped in an egg yolk.
12. Top with candied fruit, a variety of fruits, and a little decorative sugar.
13. Let it ferment for thirty minutes.
14. After half an hour, place the ring-shaped cake in the oven, preheated to 160 degrees. Bake for fifteen minutes at the same temperature, then increase to 170 and bake for another ten minutes.
15. The ring-shaped cake will be cooked when it is golden brown on top.

Enjoy!