[title subtitle=”RECIPE courtesy Stacey Little, SouthernBite.com
WORDS Catherine Frederick
IMAGE Jeromy Price”][/title]
originally published February, 2014
I’d seen king cakes before at bakeries but never attempted to make one. And to be honest, I didn’t really know they were anything more than a cake with a plastic baby baked inside that you eat during Mardi Gras – the cake, not the baby.
I love to bake, so when I found this recipe over on our friend Stacey Little’s website, SouthernBite.com; I had to try it. It was too simple not to! I did do a little research and found out this is more than just a cake – it’s tradition.
The Southern tradition of the king cake is heavily associated with Mardi Gras, which some call Carnival. French and Spanish colonists first brought the king cake to the South, but king cake parties and celebrations originated in French Louisiana back in the eighteenth century. The traditional king cake is a ring of twisted cinnamon-roll style dough topped with sugar or icing in purple, yellow, and green, with a hidden trinket in the dough. Then, sometime in 1972, a small bakery in Picayune, Mississippi, started adding fillings. Bam! Consider yourself informed.
No matter the recipe or the filling, one thing remains the same. The custom of adding the trinket (some use a plastic or porcelain baby while others use a plastic gold coin). Whoever receives the piece of cake with the trinket must provide the next king cake or host the next Mardi Gras party.
You could labor over an authentic king cake recipe that’s way more involved, but for those who want to experience a little Mardi Gras tradition in no time flat, this recipe is for you!
Ingredients
2 17-ounce cans of jumbo cinnamon rolls with icing (5 rolls per can)
2 ounces cream cheese
sugar sprinkles in purple, yellow, and green
plastic baby (check the party section at your local shops)
Method
Preheat oven to 350◦. Spray Bundt or tube pan with non-stick cooking spray. Open your cinnamon rolls and set aside icing for later. Line bottom of pan with rolls. You may have to squeeze them in there. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the cinnamon rolls are no longer gooey. Turn out onto platter to cool. Mix icing with 2 ounces of softened cream cheese. Once the rolls are cool, spread icing on top and decorate with alternating sugar sprinkles in purple, yellow, and green. Don’t forget to add your trinket!
