Hailing from Portugal, Bolo Rei or Portuguese Kings Cake, is a light and fluffy traditional Christmas cake filled with fruit and nuts. Super easy to bake at home, get ready to make your Kings Cake “crown” this holiday season!
Why We Love This Recipe
Bolo Rei just screams Christmas, from the smells of the port-infused fruit to the glace cherries on top. We love that it also tastes as good as it looks. It’s definitely a standout on the table at Christmas – just like an edible wreath!
The great thing about Kings Cake is the lightness of the cake, it’s not heavy like a traditional English fruit or Christmas cake, it’s more on the side of a sweet bread with delicate spiced flavour.
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What is Bolo Rei (Portuguese Christmas Fruit Cake)?
Bolo Rei or Portuguese Christmas Fruit Cake is, as the name states, a popular cake made during the holiday season. The cake is most popular between Christmas Day (December 25th) and Kings Day (January 6th) in Portugal.
A fun fact about Bolo Rei is traditionally there were two other things included within the cake – a fava bean and a small prize (usually a toy). If you got the fava bean it meant you had to supply the Bolo Rei at Christmas the following year. The small prize was usually a toy a child could ‘find’ within their slice. This is similar to the English tradition of hiding money in Christmas pudding to find.
What You’ll Need For Bolo Rei
- Warm milk
- Yeast
- Sugar
- Salt
- Plain flour
- Butter – for cooking
- Eggs
- Lemon Zest
- Port Wine
- Candied or Dried Fruit
- Mixed Nuts
– for cooking
How to make Portuguese Kings Cake
Place the chopped candied fruit and raisins in a bowl with the port to infuse. Set aside.
Mix the yeast with warm milk and let rest in a warm place for 5-10 minutes until slightly frothy on top.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest, butter, whole eggs and salt. Then pour in the yeast mixture and knead together. Once mixed, add in the port and fruits mixture and the chopped nuts. Knead together until well combined.
Mould the dough to be rounded or in a ball shape within the bowl, scraping down the edges and slightly sprinkle with flour before covering it over with cling wrap and a cloth. Allow to rise to double the size. This should take around 1.5 hours, depending on your climate.
Line a baking tray with paper and a light sprinkling of flour. Place the dough onto the tray, forming a ring or “crown”, without handling the dough too much. Place a cup or dish in the centre to keep the ring from closing up. Allow to rise for another 30min – 1 hour. Pre-heat oven to 180°c. Baste with egg yolk mixture and garnish with remaining nuts, dried fruit slices and icing sugar.
Pop in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, and you’re done!
Tips
- Place a bowl or cup in the middle ring to prevent the hole from closing while baking.
- Sprinkle extra icing sugar over a slice when serving to make it look extra special and add just a little extra sweetness with every bite.
FAQs
What’s the difference between Portuguese Kings Cake and Queens Cake?
The biggest difference is on the topping. Kings Cake (Bolo Rei) is layered on top with dried fruit and nuts, while Queens Cake (Bolo Rainha) omits the fruit (and sometimes the nuts too!).
While Kings Cake is the more popular recipe on the table during the holiday season, the lesser known Queens Cake is starting to rise in popularity due to the fact a lot of people don’t like the fruit on top of the cake.
Can Portuguese Christmas Kings Cake be made in advance?
You can make this one or two days in advance (especially if you wanted to have it on Christmas Day). The best way to store the cake is in a sealed container to keep the cake from drying out.
If it does feel a little dry, pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds a slice or 30-45 seconds for the whole cake.
Can you freeze Portuguese Christmas Kings Cake?
Yes! Once it’s cooked and cooled, if you won’t eat it in the next 3-4 days, pop it in the freezer and store for 2-3 months. When you’re ready to thaw it out, just pop it in the oven for 10 minutes on 180°C (350°F).
Variations & Substitutes
- Leave off the fruit on top of the cake and you’ve just made Bolo Rainha or Portuguese Queens Cake.
- Customise the flavour by substituting different fruit and nuts to suit your taste.
- Substitute port with any other spiced liquor such as brandy, sherry, frangelico or cointreau.
Need other Christmas recipe ideas? Try these:
- Top 10 Decadent Christmas Dinners
- 11 Kickass International Christmas Desserts
- Easy Australian Pavlova Recipe
- Sparkling Red Wine Gingerbread Cookies
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating below!
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp yeast (around 14g dried yeast)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 75 g butter softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg whisked - for basting
- Pinch salt
- lemon zest from 1 lemon
- 100 ml warm milk
- 100 ml port wine or brandy or sweet sherry
- 80 g candied or dried fruit chopped for filling, sultanas okay
- 50 g mixed nuts unsalted and chopped (walnuts, almonds, pine nuts)
Garnish
- 50 g dried fruit slices
- 30 g mixed nuts unsalted and halved (walnuts, almonds, pine nuts)
- Sprinkle icing sugar
- 1 tsp strawberry jam (jelly)
- 2 tsp hot water
Instructions
- Place the chopped candied fruit and raisins in a bowl with the port to infuse. Set aside.
- Mix the yeast with warm milk and let rest in a warm place for 5-10 minutes until slightly frothy on top.
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest, butter, whole eggs and salt. Then pour in the yeast mixture and knead together.
- Once mixed, add in the port and fruits mixture and the chopped nuts. Knead together until well combined.
- Mould the dough to be rounded or in a ball shape within the bowl, scraping down the edges and slightly sprinkle with flour before covering it over with cling wrap and a cloth. Allow to rise to double the size. This should take around 1.5 hours, depending on your climate.
- Line a baking tray with paper and a light sprinkling of flour. Place the dough onto the tray, forming a ring or "crown", without handling the dough too much. Place a cup or dish in the centre to keep the ring from closing up. Allow to rise for another 30min - 1 hour.
- Pre-heat oven to 180°c.
- Baste with egg yolk mixture and garnish with remaining nuts, dried fruit slices and icing sugar.
- Pop in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.
- Optional: Brush the top with the jam and hot water mix to add a finishing shine before serving.
Notes
Tips
- Place a bowl or cup in the middle ring to prevent the hole from closing while baking.
- Sprinkle extra icing sugar over a slice when serving to make it look extra special and add just a little extra sweetness with every bite.
FAQs
- What's the difference between Portuguese Kings Cake and Queens Cake? The biggest difference is on the topping. Kings Cake (Bolo Rei) is layered on top with dried fruit and nuts, while Queens Cake (Bolo Rainha) omits the fruit (and sometimes the nuts too!). While Kings Cake is the more popular recipe on the table during the holiday season, the lesser known Queens Cake is starting to rise in popularity due to the fact a lot of people don't like the fruit on top of the cake.
- Can Portuguese Christmas Kings Cake be made in advance? You can make this one or two days in advance (especially if you wanted to have it on Christmas Day). The best way to store the cake is in a sealed container to keep the cake from drying out. If it does feel a little dry, pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds a slice or 30-45 seconds for the whole cake.
- Can you freeze Portuguese Christmas Kings Cake? Yes! Once it's cooked and cooled, if you won't eat it in the next 3-4 days, pop it in the freezer and store for 2-3 months. When you're ready to thaw it out, just pop it in the oven for 10 minutes on 180°C (350°F).
Variations & Substitutes
- Leave off the fruit on top of the cake and you've just made Bolo Rainha or Portuguese Queens Cake.
- Customise the flavour by substituting different fruit and nuts to suit your taste.
- Substitute port with any other spiced liquor such as brandy, sherry, frangelico or cointreau.
Nutrition
10 Comments
Emmeline
11/12/2019 at 6:28 pmI’ve never heard of this cake before but it looks very interesting! Love learning about different Christmas foods around the world like this.
Wandercooks
12/12/2019 at 9:03 amAwesome Emmeline!
Farah
11/12/2019 at 4:42 pmHow beautiful! Looks so much better than the traditional fruit cake loaf. I’ll try this out!
Wandercooks
12/12/2019 at 9:03 amSo different, it’s a lot lighter than fruit cake which I like.
Beth
11/12/2019 at 4:32 pmWhat a fun, beautiful cake! I enjoyed learning a little about the tradition behind this recipe too!
Wandercooks
12/12/2019 at 9:02 amThat’s great Beth, we enjoyed learning about the tradition too! 🙂
Haley D. Williams
11/12/2019 at 4:16 pmLove holiday desserts from around the world!
Wandercooks
12/12/2019 at 9:02 amSame, there’s always something new to cook. 🙂
Cyndy
11/12/2019 at 4:12 pmWonderful idea and I love all of the detailed instructions that you have given. I can’t wait to make this cake!
Wandercooks
12/12/2019 at 9:05 amHappy to help Cyndy. Let us know how you go!