This Straightforward King Cake Recipe is a Mardi Gras deal with that’s a twist on our household’s favourite Cream Cheese Tea Roll made with frozen bread dough! Makes it tremendous simple to throw collectively!!
This festive King’s Cake is adorned with daring yellow, inexperienced, and purple sugars, the colours of Mardi Gras, and crammed with sweetened cream cheese earlier than baking. Add a King Cake Child for the last word vacation celebration.

Why You Should Make
- It’s a semi-homemade recipe so it’s tremendous simple to make!
- This Straightforward King Cake Recipe is ideal for Mardi Gras after you sprinkle the moist icing with sugars within the basic trio of colours of the vacation.
- It’s a tasty indulgence earlier than Lent begins!
Ingredient Notes
- Kitchen Staples – Sugar, Room temperature Butter, Milk
- Loaf of Frozen Bread Dough – I exploit Rhodes model; defrosted within the fridge in a single day
- Cream Cheese – At room temperature for simpler incorporation and a smoother filling
- Lemon Juice – Freshly squeezed is greatest. It helps to steadiness the richness of the cream cheese filling.
- Powdered Sugar – Sift for the smoothest frosting.
- Vanilla Extract – Use actual vanilla extract, by no means artificially flavored.
- Gold, Inexperienced, and Purple Sanding Sugars – The normal colours of Mardi Gras. Sprinkle over the frosting earlier than it units or it gained’t stick.

Knowledgeable Ideas
In case you neglect to buy a king cake earlier than Fats Tuesday, you may simply make this semi-homemade recipe for a king cake at residence.
- Beginning with a loaf of frozen bread dough makes the method tremendous easy. Simply wrap the frozen dough in plastic or place in a Zipoc bag and let the dough defrost in a single day within the fridge.
- PRO-Tip: Make sure that your cream cheese units out for at the least half-hour earlier than mixing the filling. It ought to be gentle sufficient in order that it blends easily.
- To roll out your dough and to comprise the flour mess, use a Massive Silpat Baking Mat (affiliate hyperlink). I mud it with flour, roll the out dough, unfold the filling over the dough, leaving house across the perimeter, roll it up, form it into a hoop, after which switch it to a baking sheet. All I’ve to do is fold up the silicone mat and shake off the flour over the trash can. Straightforward cleanup is a bonus.
- As soon as the filling is unfold on the dough, roll it over the cream cheese filling similar to you had been making cinnamon rolls. You wish to keep away from spreading the cream cheese combination all the best way to the highest and backside edges, or it can seep out once you roll. The purpose is to have a roll that’s the identical diameter all the best way throughout.
- After it’s rolled, the 2 ends have to be related so the rope turns into a hoop. Pinch the 2 ends collectively the perfect you may, in order that it’s sealed. I’ve made this rather a lot, and it’s laborious to get a picture-perfect ring. In case your filling doesn’t come all the best way to each ends, be at liberty to trim the ends as much as the filling.
- PRO-Tip: Subsequent, take a pointy knife and make cuts from the skin to about ⅞ of the best way by at 1½-inch intervals (this doesn’t must be precise, however attempt to house your slices evenly for essentially the most enticing outcomes). Be very cautious not lower right through the roll!
- Then, take every part you’ve lower and twist so the swirl of dough and cream cheese faces upwards. The sections will overlap as seen within the photographs. Go round as soon as, then make changes as wanted.
- PRO-Tip: You probably have an oven-safe king’s cake child, tuck it into the cake earlier than baking. In case you’re not sure, insert it after the cake comes out of the oven.
- PRO-Tip: Monitor any youngsters in order that they don’t choke in the event that they get the newborn of their slice. Mark the place the newborn was positioned with a toothpick, so you understand who will get that piece of the king cake.
- In case you don’t have a child, wrap a big dried bean or perhaps a coin in foil instead.
- When you’re glad with the look, you may proof the dough, bake, frost, sprinkle with coloured sugars, and luxuriate in!
I despatched the leftovers residence with my youngest to share along with his roommates. Apparently, it didn’t final lengthy! I hope you could have time to make a Semi-Selfmade King Cake this yr!
Incessantly Requested Questions
As a toddler, our King Cake was served on Epiphany, the final of the 12 Days of Christmas. Epiphany celebrates the three kings or smart males visiting the newborn Jesus, so a cake named after these kings appears apropos. If my mother remembered, she’d wrap a coin or dried bean in foil and bake it into the cake.
These days, a king cake is extra aligned with Mardi Gras, AKA Fats Tuesday, the day earlier than Lent begins. It’s truly OK to serve a king cake recipe anytime from Epiphany by Mardi Gras. King muffins are present in grocery shops throughout the states, product of eggy brioche dough and even puff pastry, and crammed with cream cheese, cinnamon sugar, fruit, or chocolate.
Most are adorned in these conventional Mardi Gras colours, which symbolize energy (gold), religion (inexperienced), and justice (purple), and formed in a hoop, symbolizing a crown. The oval additionally represents the unity of religion.
The infant represents child Jesus and whoever finds it of their serving of King Cake is blessed with the present of prosperity over the subsequent yr. And the fortunate particular person can be assigned the duty of offering the cake for the next yr’s Mardi Gras celebration.
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Substances
- 1 loaf frozen bread dough, defrosted within the fridge in a single day
Filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1+ tablespoons milk
- Gold, inexperienced and purple sanding sugars
Directions
- Roll dough right into a 16 x 12 rectangle (roughly).
- Unfold filling on high. Roll up the dough as if making cinnamon rolls.
- Take the rolled dough and make a hoop by becoming a member of the 2 ends collectively. Gently pinch the ends collectively to seal.
- Make cuts each 1 ½ inches or so, about ¾+ of the best way by the ring (from exterior in direction of the center). I wish to make 12 sections in order that I can have 4 of every coloration
- .Twist every ring on its facet in order that the filling exhibits.
- Loosely cowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a heat spot for about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350º. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool earlier than icing.
- Whisk or beat collectively glaze substances and add sufficient milk to skinny right into a glaze.
- Brush over the bread, avoiding the filling, one part at a time.
- Earlier than the glaze over every part dries, sprinkle the glaze with sugar, alternating between colours.
- Let set earlier than serving.
Notes
Add a king cake child earlier than or after baking if desired. Make sure that to observe youngsters should you’ve hidden a child within the cake. Mark the place the newborn is with a toothpick, so there is no such thing as a choking hazard with that slice.
If making forward of time, retailer it within the fridge till an hour or two earlier than serving.
Advisable Merchandise
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Vitamin Info:
Yield:
8
Serving Measurement:
1 slice
Quantity Per Serving:
Energy: 206Whole Fats: 13gSaturated Fats: 8gTrans Fats: 0gUnsaturated Fats: 4gLdl cholesterol: 36mgSodium: 113mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 0gSugar: 21gProtein: 2g
