Every Mardi Gras, I have been wanting to make a King Cake for the kids. I just never seem to have the extra time. So when I came across an easy idea to make this happen, I went for it.
But before I forget, this past week, this blog was named one of Babble’s Top 100 Mom Food Blogs of 2011. Thank you Babble, and thank you to all of you who visit here daily. We truly appreciate all of your support!
Now, back to the King Cake, a dessert eaten all over the world in different forms and associated with the festivities of Mardi Gras, and it is no where more beloved than New Orleans.
It is normally a sweetened, yeasted bread stuffed with a cinnamon, cream cheese or praline filling and shaped into an oval ring. It is then topped with white icing and sprinkled with yellow, green and purple sprinkles. A small, plastic baby is then stuffed inside and whoever finds the trinket is declared the KING!
Anyways, this is the ultimate King Cake cheating recipe. However, if you find yourself short on time, give this a whirl. It surely tasted delicious!!
Preheat oven to 375o F. In a bowl, pour hot cider over raisins to plump. Let sit 5 minutes. Drain.
Unfurl cinnamon rolls. Place two strips next to each other, pinching seams to create one wide strip. Sprinkle bottom half with raisins and pecans. Fold over; press to seal.
Twist dough into a circle. Seal ends. Repeat with remaining rolls. Bake cakes a few inches apart on a greased baking tray for 17-20 minutes. While they are warm ice them and sprinkle with sugar crystals.
Serve them up, everyone will love them.
Busy Mom's Mini King Cakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup golden raisins
- 3/4 cup apple cider, hot
- 2 (17.5 oz) cans jumbo cinnamon rolls with icing
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans
- yellow, green and purple sugar crystals
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a bowl, pour hot cider over raisins to plump. Let sit 5 minutes. Drain.
- Unfurl cinnamon rolls. Place two strips next to each other, pinching seams to create one wide strip. Sprinkle bottom half with raisins and pecans. Fold over; press to seal.
- Twist dough into a circle. Seal ends. Repeat with remaining rolls. Bake cakes a few inches apart on a greased baking tray for 17-20 minutes. While they are warm ice them and sprinkle with sugar crystals.
Jennifer says
Congrats on the nomination. Very cool!
I may have to make these on Tuesday…I wonder where I can find a small baby?
Dawn says
This is fabulous!
Biz says
What a great idea! I had no idea what a King cake was when I worked in a law firm in downtown Chicago. We had local counsel from New Orleans, and they shipped us a cake.
I was given a piece, took it back to my desk, and all of a sudden I but down on something, pulled it out of my mouth, and low and behold it was a tiny baby. I had visions of the baker’s child standing next to the mixer and just throwing it in at the last minute!
I then found out that I was the lucky one for finding it – whew!
Enjoy your Sunday!
Barbie with a T says
I almost picked up the ingredients today at the store to make these, but our city is all sold out of green, gold and purple sugar sprinkles. Our Mardi Gras is a big thing here almost like New Orleans, and so everybody had the same idea and Wal Mart was sold out of the colors of sprinkles I needed. So I will have to break down and buy a ready made king cake I suppose. Either that or just have cinnamon rolls and forget it! I think I could find green, gold, and yellow jelly beans and decorate the cinnamon rolls with them. It just wouldn’t be the same. Maybe next year I will plan ahead.
Claire K Creations says
They look so pretty! I don’t think you can buy cinnamon rolls like that in Australia unfortunately. Looks like I’ll have to make it the long way when I do.
Jenn slim-shoppin says
those are so cute! And so festive!!
Leah says
I have always wanted to make a king cake. Yours look so easy and fun!
KT Mac says
“Barbie with a T” —
You can tint your own sugar and it’s very simple!
1. Place granulated sugar into a Ziploc plastic bag.
2. Add a drop or 2 of dye to the bag. Let the color drip on the inside of the bag instead of directly onto the sugar. If using a thick-concentrated coloring, put some dye on a toothpick and wipe it onto the inside of the bag.
3. Close the Ziploc bag. Shake and massage the bag with your fingers until the color is evenly distributed throughout the sugar and all the clumps are removed.
4. Add more color if the color isn’t dark enough or add more sugar if it is too dark.
The Teacher Cooks says
I love this idea! They are so cut and easy.
Carolina says
What a great idea for an easy-to-make Mardi Gras treat! Tuesday falls in the middle of the week… makes it hard to devote all the time a Kings Cake deserves.
I hope you don’t mind, but I added it to my top five Mardi Gras recipes. Feel free to check out the others here:
http://www.best5everything.com/best5ListPages/mardigrasrecipes47718.php
Thanks again for the great idea!
Blond Duck says
This looks better than regular king cakes to me!
Jihane Sinful Sundays says
King cakes are so good, and I like your spin on them! —I want to go to New Orleans and feast on one from there one day. đŸ™‚
tanya m says
These are so cute! I’ll have to make a batch up for next year. We lived in New Orleans from 2001 to 2007, so I’ve eaten many a king cake in my time đŸ™‚ But I do want to share one tidbit about the baby in the cake. King cakes begin to be served at the start of the Mardi Gras season, often they are brought to parties, gatherings or workplaces each week until Mardi Gras day finally arrives and the season is over until next year. Tradition states that whoever gets the slice of cake with the baby in it has to provide the next king cake, so many try their best to avoid the baby. It used to be a big old contest at my workplace – who ended up having to provide the most king cakes that year and who got off without having to provide even one all season đŸ™‚
Chris says
This looks like a great recipe to do a quick and easy version of our Mardi Gras treat. However, as a New Orleans resident, I do have one point of clarification: finding the baby is not merely a honorific. If you get the piece with the baby in it, that means you have to bring the king cake next time đŸ™‚
Anthony Morrison says
This is so unfair. I am absolutely hungry now. I just love the stuff you have here.