King Cake on a Rainy Day

Today I am finishing up the King Cake and am utterly disappointed in my results. Perhaps it is due to the rain pouring down outside, as humidity in the air can affect the moisture content of dough. For whatever reason, the brioche dough is just not cooperating. It is normally quite difficult to work with, but today it seems it is impossible. I had planned to make one King Cake and some cinnamon rolls with the remaining half of the dough, but my first attempt at King Cake was such a flop, I had to give it another try. Luckily, while assembling the first, I decided to use only half the fillings. It was a good call, because the filling I did use ended up spilling out through cracks in the dough as I tried to move it onto the pan. Imagine the mess I would have had with double the filling. The King Cake looked perfect until I tried to move it. I even took the parchment off the pan and attempted to slip it under the cake, but that proved to be unsuccessful and so I ended up with this:

On my second attempt at assembly, I formed the dough into a ring on a floured sheet of parchment, thinking this way I wouldn't have to move it for baking. I rolled it flat into a big doughnut shape,
Spread the fillings inside, (although, I think I was a little heavy on the berry filling)

then folded the dough over the fillings.

Well, it was more successful than the first one, but still not what I was looking for. I didn't end up with enough dough to fold, so my fillings ended up sticking out through most of the top. Kind of like one big danish. I am baking them with hopes that the berry filling doesn't spill out and burn on the pan, smoking us out. (we have really sensitive smoke alarms that get tested from time to time) On the bright side, if they bake up ok, we'll still have some pretty tasty cakes even if they look like total flops. Besides, they ARE supposed to look gaudy, and I can always cover them up a bit with some purple, green, and gold frosting.

I'm going to go back to my old posting and update the recipe based on what I learned today, in case you want to attempt making King Cakes. I hope my little disaster has not deterred you!