Twelfth Night Cake

8 cups of the best white flour
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 pound of the best butter or shortening
1 pint of whole milk (2 cups)
1/2 ounce yeast (2 1/4-ounce packages, or about 4 1/2 tsp)
1/2 ounce salt (2 tsp)
Candies to decorate

To make the cake take 6 cups sifted flour, and put it in a wooden bread trough. Make a hole in the center of the flour, and put in a half-ounce of yeast, dissolved in a little warm water. Add about a pint of milk or tepid water to make the dough, using milk if you want it to be very rich and delicate, and water if you have not the milk.

Remember that if you use milk to make the dough it must be scalded, that is, must be heated to the boiling point, and then allowed to grow tepid. Knead and mix the flour with one hand, while adding the milk or water with the other. Add six eggs, beaten very light with the sugar and butter, or shortening, and mix all well together, kneading lightly with your hands, and adding more eggs if the dough is a little stiff. Let the dough rise for five or six hours [or until doubled in bulk], and, when increased to twice its bulk, take it and add the reserved half-pound of flour, into which you will have sifted the salt.

Then knead the dough by turning it over on itself three times and set to rise again for an hour or three-quarters of an hour. Cover with a cloth. At the end of this time take it up and work again lightly, and then form into a great ring, leaving, of course, a hole in the center.

This amount of dough may be divided and baked in two or more King's Cakes. Pat gently and flatten a little. Have ready a baking pan with a buttered sheet of paper in it, and set the central roll in the middle. Cover the pan with a clean, stiff cloth, and set the cake to rise for an hour longer. When well risen, set in an oven a few degrees cooler than that used for baking bread; let bake for an hour and a half; if medium, one hour, and if very small, a half hour. Glace the Brioche lightly with a beaten egg, spread lightly over the top before placing in the oven. Decorate with dragees, caramels, or any small colored cake-decorating candies.