Easy Mini King Cake for Kids
Somehow, I went through life never knowing the existence of King Cakes. I’d never been to New Orleans, and Mardi Gras was a holiday that came and went with no fanfare whatsoever. It wasn’t until my mid-twenties, when a co-worker from New Orleans introduced me to King Cakes. Her dad kept sending them to her at work and each time she received one, she’d put it in the break room. The person who found the hidden plastic baby, in theory, should have bought another cake for the office. In this case, that person didn’t have to because the New Orleans girl’s dad just kept sending more! I kept thinking how sweet it was to have a dad who sent King Cake, so I like King Cake now for that reason. Still, I never felt compelled to make one from scratch.
A few years ago, I bought Fuzz a cookbook for kids and in it, was a picture of a King Cake. She loved that cake and off and on throughout the year, asked if we could make it. We finally got around to it this week and since this, have made a couple!
This is a really fun activity. If you have the time and patience, make the dough yourself. However, canned biscuit dough is the perfect medium for little hands and covered with cinnamon, sugar, and butter, it tastes really good. Emeril has a recipe similar to this, but he uses canned crescent dough. We might give that a try, but so far the biscuit dough has been well accepted.
Mini King Cake
1 (16 oz) can of biscuits (regular, not the layered kind but the regular). We use “Grands”
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
A few spoonfuls of canned cream cheese frosting (optional)
Yellow, Purple, Green Sprinkles
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with Release foil. You can skip this, but it makes clean up easier. Open the biscuits and lay them flat on the foil. Press them into a large circle (about 12 inches) or giant rectangle. We’ve done it both ways.
Paint the dough with butter, then mix sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle evenly over dough.
Lay babies somewhere on the dough.
Roll the dough up into a cylinder and pinch as tightly as possible to seal. Shape the cylinder into a round.
Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool slightly, then spoon icing over top and let it fall down sides. Sprinkle sugar on top.
Ready to eat! It tastes best shortly after being made, but also tastes good the next day.
Hi again Anna!
Oh my gosh, this is so cool! I am chuckling at those little plastic dolls!!
Where can you purchase those? Too cute!
I have seen these cakes too, but this one looks so doable and easy. Thanks!
Therese, we found the dolls at a party store called “Party Pig”. Any party store should have them, if not, try Michael’s. You can hide coins instead of babies.
Williams Sonoma has the colored sprinkles. They’re 4.00 a canister, but will last forever. We’ve also made our own colored sugar, but I think the larger-crystaled sprinkles are better. Granulated sugar seems to grainy to me.
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. My husband is from New Orleans and we love King cakes. My girls will get a big kick out of being able to make their own.
Anna, Could you please post the recipe using the crescent roll dough? This sounds like something my son would like to try.
Hi Ann,
The version which used the crescent dough was from Emeril.
http://www.recipezaar.com/151532
I personally go the lazy man’s route and instead of buscuits, I use cans cinnamon rolls. This way you already have the icing and the cinnamon sugar goodness.
I love that Fuzz was wearing a crown/tiara to make the King Cake. I actually think that should be a requirement for any kind of baking.
Monica, my girlfriend came over and her first question was “Why didn’t you just use cinnamon roll dough?”. I’m going to try it. What I liked about the biscuit dough was I was able to really control the amount of sugar/cinnamon/butter.
Gigi, she’s pretty funny with tiaras….and hats in general. If there’s one around, she’ll wear it.
Update: We tried this with crescent dough. In my opinion, it was too rich. The butter plus the extra butter in the dough was just overkill. I think the cresent dough would work well with a different filling, but the butter and sugar filling was better with the biscuit dough.
I made this as a suprise for my girls last night while they were at gymnastics. They were so excited to see it sitting on the counter when they got home. Who knew that Grands and a little frosting and sprinkles could put such smiles on their faces! Actually, the flavor really suprised me. It did not taste like biscuit dough as the filling gave it an upscale taste. Thanks for the recipe. It will for sure become a yearly tradition.
Hi Kelli,
I’m glad you made it. Maybe next time, you could let the girls help. Fuzz loved making this and it was kind of a bonus that her little playgroup buddies showed up right as it was coming out of the oven.
Now that I’ve made this one a few times, I’d like to move on to a scratch King Cake.
Anna,
The first cake went so fast that my daughters are chomping at the bit to make another! I have all the ingredients so this weekend I am going to let them make it. (They are 11 and
Both of them are excited and looking forward to hiding the babies (yes, just as in your picture, I put more than one baby in the cake!) Thanks again.
Too cute! I love it! King cake cupcakes would also probably be a hit with kids. Too bad I don’t know any kids to try them out on. Someday!
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/01/mardi-gras-king-cake-cupcakes-fit-for.html
I “cheat” and use ready-to-bake cinnamon rolls for my mini king cakes. Check out my how to recipe on ehow.com.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2184139_mardi-gras-king-cakes-minutes.html
Love the “mini” King Cake idea. Thanks for the URL.
I was so glad to find this easy king cake recipe. I teach preschool and was looking for a easy king cake recipe we could do together. We are going to try this one for sure. Thanks a lot.
I am planning a Cajun party for a friend. My first plan was to order a king cake, but after seeing all the shortcuts – I am ready to dive right in tomorrow for a trial run! Thanks!
Mandy
how much does one cake serve?
Good question, Jo.
It’s a guestimate, but I’d say 8.
At last a King Cake I can make!
Yippee! Unfortunately, I will have to wait until next year because I didn’t get to the store in time to buy the ingredients before Lent. But next year, yes! 
This is genius!! My 7 yr. old son and I are looking forward to doing this tomorrow! He’s been carrying around the little gold baby from the last King Cake we had from 2yrs. ago! We had found a King Cake boxed mix, but I haven’t been able to find it since. I love to involve him in the baking (hence the reason I got the mix) and your recipe is perfect! Thank you for sharing!
~Amy
thanks… will be making this for my son’s 4th birthday NOLA themed party tomorrow… thanks for the EZ route!