Let the good times roll with this festive Mini King Cake Recipe! A tender yeast dough is swirled around a cinnamon sugar center, baked and topped with a sweet glaze and a trio of colorful sugar sprinkles. Whether you choose to hide a baby or some pecans inside or not, these cute mini king cakes are sure to liven up your Mardi Gras festivities!
Recipe Background and Details
King cakes are eaten between January 6 in honor of Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, which historically marks the arrival of the three wise men (or the three kings - hence the name King Cake) in Bethlehem who delivered gifts to the baby Jesus and Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, the day of feasting before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. You can read more about the tradition here.
King cake is not something I grew up eating, but my family has an Acadian history and my dad was an authority on Cajun food so I have had fun incorporating the tradition into our family. Speaking of my dad, his Chicken and Sausage Gumbo is pure comfort food and would make a great addition to your Mardi Gras menus along with these Mini King Cakes.
I originally made a version of this Mini King Cake recipe for my blog way back in 2014 and I am finally getting around to updating the recipe. It was not the most streamlined recipe and I'm happy to say I changed that. Scroll down to see the original cute photos with my daughter's little helping hands.
This post was originally published February 17, 2015 and was updated on February 9, 2024.
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Ingredients for Mini King Cakes
The Mini King Cake dough is essentially a cinnamon roll dough and is very simple to make with a few pantry staples.
- milk
- sugar
- yeast
- egg
- butter
- salt
- flour
- vanilla bean paste or extract
Instructions
How to make Mini King Cakes
Make the dough
- Stir together warm milk, yeast, sugar, egg, and vanilla in the bowl of stand mixer and let sit for about 5 minutes until yeast foams.
- After yeast is activated, add butter, salt, and flour and mix on low with a dough hook until a soft dough forms. Continue kneading for about 5-7 minutes on speed 2. Add a tiny bit of flour if dough seems overly sticky.
- When dough has kneaded, place bowl in a warm place covered loosely with a clean towel or plastic wrap. Let rise 60 minutes or until dough is doubled in bulk.
Assembling Mini King Cakes
- Combine filling ingredients and stir to make a smooth mixture.
- Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, and flatten into a thin, roughly 18x12-inch rectangle. Spread one half of the dough with filling mixture. Fold the unfilled half of dough over the filling and press down gently.
- Trim edges if desired and cut lengthwise into 6 even strips. It is fine if some of them are a bit different than others - don't worry if they aren't exact.
- Working with one piece at a time, twist the dough and roll it up to form a circular shape (see photos for reference). Repeat with all dough pieces.
Second Rise, Baking, and Decorating
- Place king cakes on parchment lined baking sheets and cover with plastic wrap that has been lightly sprayed with non-stick spray and let rise for about an hour in a warm place. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F during last 20-30 minutes of rising time. The best way to check that they are done rising is to give the dough a light poke with your index finger. If the dough springs back quickly, they are not ready. If your finger leaves an indentation that remains, they are ready to bake!
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes until lightly golden brown. Let cool on wire racks while you prepare the glaze. Combine all glaze ingredients in a large measuring cup or bowl. Once cakes have cooled for about 15 minutes, pour glaze over and quickly sprinkle to make a yellow, purple, green pattern. Allow to set and enjoy!
Substitutions, Variations, and a plastic baby?
The fillings and flavorings can really vary on these traditional cakes. I keep it simple with cinnamon sugar, but here are a few suggestions to mix things up:
- Flavorings: In addition to or instead of the vanilla, citrus zest or other extracts such as almond can be used to flavor the dough.
- Filling: Add chopped pecans, raisins, and/or chocolate chips to the cinnamon sugar filling. Also, some king cakes have a cream cheese filling rather than the cinnamon sugar filling such as in this king cake recipe.
- Glaze: Add citrus zest and juice or use your favorite extract. Or get really wild and add a splash of bourbon or rum!
- Plastic Baby: Many king cakes will have a plastic baby inside to represent the baby Jesus, but other add-in options include a coin, a dry bean, pecan half, or orange slice. Truthfully, I never add anything to mine so don't feel like you have to!
The three colors of the king cake are the colors of Mardi Gras. Purple is for justice, gold for power and green for faith.
Cinnamon sugar or cream cheese filling is traditional in a king cake. Also, a small trinket, such as a plastic baby or coin, is also often added.
The plastic baby represents baby Jesus. And whoever finds the baby in their slice of cake gets to be “king” for a day and is also said to have good luck.
Related Recipes
If you love baking check out these recipes:
- Artisan Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Discard Focaccia
- Sourdough Monkey Bread (discard or active starter)
- Sourdough Star Bread
Mini King Cakes for Mardi Gras!
Let the good times roll with these festive Mini King Cakes! Really fun to make and perfect for Mardi Gras!
- Total Time: 40 minutes plus rising
- Yield: 6 mini king cakes
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 cup milk, warmed to 100-110 degrees F
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- 2 tablespoons soft butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 and ½ cups AP flour
Filling:
- 4 tablespoons soft butter
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Glaze and topping:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
- Purple, green, and gold/yellow sprinkles
Instructions
- Stir together warm milk, yeast, sugar, egg, and vanilla in the bowl of stand mixer and let sit for about 5 minutes until yeast foams.
- After yeast is activated, add butter, salt, and flour and mix on low with a dough hook until a soft dough forms. Continue kneading for about 5-7 minutes on speed 2. Add a tiny bit of flour if dough seems overly sticky.
- When dough has kneaded, place bowl in a warm place covered loosely with a clean towel or plastic wrap. Let rise 60 minutes or until dough is doubled in bulk.
- Combine filling ingredients and stir to make a smooth mixture.
- Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, and flatten into a thin, roughly 18x12-inch rectangle. Spread one half of the dough with filling mixture. Fold the unfilled half of dough over the filling and press down gently.
- Trim edges if desired and cut lengthwise into 6 even strips. It is fine if some of them are a bit different than others - don't worry if they aren't exact.
- Working with one piece at a time, twist the dough and roll it up to form a circular shape (see photos for reference). Repeat with all dough pieces.
- Place king cakes on parchment lined baking sheets and cover with plastic wrap that has been lightly sprayed with non-stick spray and let rise for about an hour in a warm place. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F during last 20-30 minutes of rising time. The best way to check that they are done rising is to give the dough a light poke with your index finger. If the dough springs back quickly, they are not ready. If your finger leaves an indentation that remains, they are ready to bake!
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes until lightly golden brown. Let cool on wire racks while you prepare the glaze. Combine all glaze ingredients in a large measuring cup or bowl. Once cakes have cooled for about 15 minutes, pour glaze over and quickly sprinkle to make a yellow, purple, green pattern. Allow to set and enjoy!
Notes
I almost always use salted butter but feel free to use unsalted if that is your preference. There is no need to adjust the salt in the recipe unless you are using outrageously salty butter or you are very, very sensitive to salt.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes plus rising
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: dessert, breads, yeast breads
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Jess says
These cakes are so cute, and nicely decorated. King Cakes can sometimes look a little messy, but you pulled it off very well. Merry/Happy Mardi Gras 😉
Selma's Table says
Love those little hands rolling up her King Cake - lovely recipe and lovely photos too Ani x
Ani Hughes | Cook on a Whim says
Oh, thanks Selma! <3
Kristie says
how can i make this gluten free? i have already made it completely organic! so delicious!
anita | wild thistle kitchen says
Hi Kristie! I'm glad you've been enjoying this recipe. I do not have much experience with gluten free baking. My recommendation would be to try replacing the wheat flour in this recipe with a high quality cup-for-cup gluten free flour blend such as King Arthur or Bob's Red Mill. I have not tried this though so I can't make any promises! I hope it works if you give it a try. Maybe do a half recipe just to see how it works. Good luck! - Anita
Brittany says
Salted or unsalted butter?
anita | wild thistle kitchen says
I almost always use salted but you can use whichever you have and/or prefer.