Easy King Cake
This Easy King Cake Recipe is a Mardi Gras treat that’s a twist on our family’s favorite Cream Cheese Tea Roll made with frozen bread dough! Makes it super easy to throw together!!
This festive King’s Cake is decorated with bold yellow, green and purple sugars, the colors of Mardi Gras, and filled with sweetened cream cheese before baking. Add a King Cake Baby for the ultimate holiday celebration.
Why You Must Make
- It’s a semi-homemade recipe so it’s super easy to make!
- This easy king cake recipe is perfect for Mardi Gras after you sprinkle the wet icing with sugars in the classic trio of colors of the holiday.
- It’s a tasty indulgence before Lent begins!
Ingredient Notes
- Kitchen Staples – Sugar, Room temperature Butter, Milk
- Loaf of Frozen Bread Dough – I use Rhodes brand; defrosted in the refrigerator overnight
- Cream Cheese – At room temperature for easier incorporation and a smoother filling
- Lemon Juice – Freshly squeezed is best.
- Powdered Sugar – Sift for the smoothest frosting
- Vanilla Extract – Use real vanilla extract, never artificially flavored.
- Gold, Green, and Purple Sanding Sugars – The traditional colors of Mardi Gras. Sprinkle over the frosting before it sets.
Expert Tips
If you forget to purchase a king cake before Fat Tuesday, you can easily make this semi-homemade recipe for a king cake at home.
- Starting with a loaf of frozen bread dough makes the process super simple. Just wrap the frozen dough in plastic or place in a Zipoc bag and let the dough defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
- PRO-Tip: Make sure your cream cheese sets out for at least 30 minutes before mixing the filling. It should be soft enough so that it blends smoothly.
- To roll out your dough and contain the flour mess, use a large Silpat (affiliate link). I dust it with flour, add the cream cheese filling, roll the dough, shape, and transfer it to a baking sheet. All I have to do is fold up the silicone mat and shake off the flour over the trash can. Easy cleanup is a bonus.
- Once the filling is spread on the dough, roll it over the cream cheese filling just like you were making cinnamon rolls. You want to avoid spreading the cream cheese mixture all the way to the top and bottom edges or it will seep out when you roll. The goal is to have a roll that’s the same diameter all the way across.
- After it’s rolled, the two ends must be connected so the rope becomes a ring. Pinch the two ends together the best you can so that it’s sealed. I’ve made this a lot and it’s hard to get a picture-perfect ring. If your filling doesn’t come all the way to both ends, feel free to trim the ends to the filling.
- PRO-Tip: Next, take a sharp knife and make cuts from the outside to about ⅞ of the way through at 1½-inch intervals. Don’t cut all the way through to the center!
- Then, take each section you’ve cut and twist so the swirl of dough and cream cheese face upwards. The sections will overlap as seen in the photos. Go around once, then make adjustments as needed.
- PRO-Tip: If you have an oven-safe king’s cake baby, tuck it into the cake before baking. If you’re unsure, insert it after the cake comes out of the oven.
- PRO-Tip: Monitor any children so they don’t choke if they get the baby in their slice.
- If you don’t have a baby, wrap a large dried bean or even a coin in foil to use instead.
- Once you’re satisfied with the look, you can proof the dough, bake, frost, sprinkle with colored sugars, and enjoy!
I sent the leftovers home with my youngest to share with his roommates. Apparently, it didn’t last long! I hope you have time to make a semi-homemade king cake this year!
Frequently Asked Questions
As a child, our King Cake was served on Epiphany, the last of the 12 Days of Christmas. Epiphany celebrates the three kings or wise men visiting the baby Jesus, so a cake named after these kings seems apropos. If my mom would remember, she’d wrap a coin or dried bean in foil and bake it into the cake.
Nowadays, a king cake is more aligned with Mardi Gras, AKA Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. It’s actually OK to serve a king cake recipe anytime from Epiphany through Mardi Gras. King cakes are found in grocery stores across the states, made of eggy brioche dough or even puff pastry, and filled with cream cheese, cinnamon sugar, fruit, or chocolate.
Most are decorated in those traditional Mardi Gras colors which represent power (gold), faith (green), and justice (purple), and shaped in a ring, symbolizing a crown. The oval also represents the unity of faith.
The baby represents baby Jesus and whoever finds it in their serving of King Cake is blessed with the gift of prosperity over the next year. And the lucky person is also assigned the task of providing the cake for the following year’s Mardi Gras celebration.
You May Also Like:
- Bananas Foster – A super easy, traditional New Orleans dessert served over ice cream.
- Chicken Jambalaya Soup – Spicy, comforting, and flavorful.
- Sausage and Chicken Gumbo – A delectable Louisiana classic!
- Plus these Polish Paczki or Polish Doughnuts, a common Fat Tuesday treat from Cravings of a Lunatic, look incredibly delicious!!
Easy King Cake
A semi-homemade cream cheese filled tea roll iced, then decorated with colored sugars for Mardi Gras.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf frozen bread dough, defrosted in the refrigerator overnight
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, green and purple sanding sugars
Instructions
- Roll dough into a 16 x 12 rectangle (approximately).
- Spread filling on top. Roll up the dough as if making cinnamon rolls.
- Take the rolled dough and make a ring by joining the two ends together. Gently pinch the ends together to seal.
- Make cuts every 1 ½ inches or so, about ¾+ of the way through the ring (from outside towards the middle). I like to make 12 sections so that I can have 4 of each color
- .Twist each ring on its side so that the filling shows.
- Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350º. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool before icing.
- Whisk or beat together glaze ingredients and add enough milk to thin into a glaze.
- Brush over the bread, avoiding the filling, one section at a time.
- Before the glaze over each section dries, sprinkle the glaze with sugar, alternating between colors.
- Let set before serving.
Notes
Add a king cake baby before or after baking if desired. Make sure you monitor children if they're eating if you've hidden a baby in the cake.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1 sliceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 206Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 36mgSodium: 113mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 0gSugar: 21gProtein: 2g
22 Comments on “Easy King Cake”
I found the bread dough, but it is a 5 lb bag of 5 frozen loaves. One loaf doesn’t look like enough, any suggestions? Is this how your loaf was? Life in a small town. 🙂
Can you use the frozen rolls, if so, how many? Sometimes our small town doesn’t carry everything, so not sure if they will have the loaf.
Yes, roll dough should work. You’ll need a pound of dough. The rolls will need to be defrosted, then kneaded together into one big ball so you can roll it out, add the filling, then roll into a cylinder before the final shaping. Hope it works well for you, Marilyn! I’m still hoping you can find a loaf of frozen bread dough!
This is so festive, delicious, and really easy to make! Everything I could ask for!! Thanks so much for the recipe!
I’ve shied away from making a King Cake because I didn’t want to tangle with a yeast recipe. Frozen bread dough, puff pastry, DUH! Why didn’t I think of that? Thankfully, you did and it looks like we may have to celebrate Fat Tuesday all over again.
what a fund recipe, love the cream cheese filling too, thank you sharing this and love the history of it too, hadn’t even seen it before
What a creative and delicious riff on traditional king cake! And, honestly, I think it’s even prettier than the way it’s typically served.
what beautiful cake Lizzy!! so pretty!! xoxox
I’ve had King Cake, of course, but I almost never make it. Like maybe once or twice in my life! Gotta change that — yours looks awesome. Such a colorful cake, isn’t it? Terrific recipe — thanks.
Your King Cake is perfect! So pretty and festive!
Oh how I wish I would have bought a King cake for Mardi Gras. Can I buy yours? 🙂 It’s just perfect!
So pretty, this is perfect for Mardi Gras!
I found this post so interesting as I have never heard of a King Cake. The fact that it has a hidden penny is very similar to our traditional English Christmas pudding where the cook would hide pennies in the cake. Everyone would hope for a huge slice so they had a good chance of finding as much cash as possible. You King Cake is very pretty. I love the colours xx
So colorful! This is the first time that I come across a King Cake. It does look very celebratory.
Just love King’s Cake. Haven’t made one in awhile because no one is here to find the baby. And we would eat it all. This looks like a wonderful version Liz. Love all the pretty sugar!
I always forget to make a king cake! The celebration is over and done with before I know it. I’ve got a light version that I do make (when I remember) that is more cake like and baked in a bundt pan. Snow day today so let me see if I have the ingredients! 🙂
Dear Liz, I had been thinking about making a King Cake this year – this looks like a fantastic version of one and I like that it is not too time consuming, yet very pretty, with a delicious sounding filling!
LIZ!!! This is the prettiest King Cake I’ve ever seen. You are a gifted baker 🙂 Pinned!
Love those colours, dear! Must be tasty! xoxo
Yum! Looks like you’re all set for Mardi Gras-enjoy:@)
Your king cake looks great – tastefully decorated. Some king cakes are very gawdy.
This looks so FUN and I bet it’s delicious!