So once upon a time I lived in Pittsburgh, PA where Mardi Gras wasn’t exactly a common celebration and there weren’t King Cakes sold at the front of every grocery store.
WHAT? I know, as a southern girl, it was nuts. But what’s a girl to do when there is no King Cake? Make one. So two years ago, before I was on Pinterest, I scoured the Internet {aka Google searched} for an easy King Cake recipe. I found it and made it with a few of my own tweaks along the way. It was easy and delish, so I’m bringing it back to the blog today!
Easy King Cake Recipe
Get ready for the easiest King Cake recipe you will find. Wait. You’re not familiar with the awesomeness that is King Cake? I’ll let Wikipedia explain it to you real fast…
King Cake: a type of cake associated with the pre-Lenten celebrations of Mardi Gras / Carnival. In the United States, Carnival is traditionally observed in the Southeastern region of the country, particularly in New Orleans, Mobile, AL, other towns and cities of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, on the southeast Texas island of Galveston, and Louisiana. In this region, the king cake is closely associated with Mardi Gras traditions and is served throughout the Carnival season, which lasts from Epiphany Eve to Fat Tuesday. The cake has a small trinket (often a small plastic baby, said to represent Baby Jesus) inside (or sometimes placed underneath), and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations.
I’m glad we got that out of the way. Now here’s the recipe.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total: 35 minutes…you know it can’t be a hard recipe if it only takes this long!
Ingredients
Filling
4 ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes, drained and patted dry on paper towels
1/2 cup pecan halves
Cake
2 rolls Pillsbury crescent rolls {yep that’s it}
Icing
1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar {powdered sugar}
3 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Purple, green, and yellow colored sugar crystals
Preparation
1. Pour yourself a glass of wine {or drink of choice, we all know baking is more fun with alcohol}, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray baking sheet with non-stick spray.
2. Place the cream cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins into the bowl your food processor {or blender} and process until combined.
3. Add pecan halves and pulse until the pecan halves are in small chunks.
4. Unroll crescent rolls and tear apart into their individual triangles.
5. With the points towards the center of the pan, position the triangles next to each other barely overlapping the long sides. See below.
6. Spread the filling in the center of the ring.
7. Fold the outside of the triangles one by one over the filling. They should overlap the filling about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way.
8. Fold the point side of the triangle over top of the previously folded outside layer.
9. Lightly press down the seams of the crescent rolls to make sure your filling is covered and won’t ooze out!
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until outside is a golden brown.
11. For the frosting, mix with a whisk in a medium size bowl your powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. The frosting should be fairly thick, but still thin enough to drip down the sides of your cake.
12. Once your cake has completely cooled, spoon the icing around your cake letting it drip down the sides.
13. If you decided to use sprinkles, alternate the three colors around your cake for some Mardi Gras color!
Like I said, easy, peasy king cake.
Okay, don’t judge my blue/red sprinkles. I didn’t have purple, Kroger didn’t have purple and I wasn’t about to scour the city of Houston for purple sprinkles. If I was smart and thought ahead, I would have ordered them from Amazon. So instead you get blue/red which clearly equals purple.
See how easy that king cake recipe was? Oh and it’s delish. The hubs and I obviously had to taste test it, but the rest of this sucker is going to my parents house this Saturday. Nothing good will come out of me having this entire thing in my house until it’s gone.
Sharing is definitely caring when it comes to this easy king cake recipe! If you feel like you have the itch to bake or create, try out this recipe instead of grabbing one at the store next time! Or you can make one when you get the king cake craving and it’s not Mardi Gras!
Before you go, check out these Dyed Deviled Easter Eggs! If it’s Mardi Gras, Easter is right around the corner afterall!
Do you celebrate Mardi Gras?
What are you favorite Mardi Gras traditions?
