Easy King Cake
This easy Mardi Gras King Cake takes a shortcut using frozen bread dough creating a delicious cake with a sweet glaze decorated with bright yellow, green, and purple sugars. Be sure to hide the small plastic baby inside the cake before slicing!
Servings: 12 servings
Ingredients
- 12 Rhodes frozen dough balls or one loaf frozen bread dough, thawed to room temperature
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- zest from 1 orange
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1/4 teaspoon rum extract
For the glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- purple, green, and yellow colored sugar
- small plastic baby
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- Place the raisins in a small bowl. Pour the hot water over the raisins and set aside. This will plump the raisins up.
- If using thawed Rhodes dinner rolls, combine them into a ball. Then proceed with the this step. On the prepared baking sheet, knead the dough and shape into a 17 inch circle. Tear a hole in the middle of the dough, stretching it out to create a 5 inch opening. Alternatively, you can use a 5 inch biscuit cutter to make the hole.
- Drain the raisins; set aside. Zest the orange and set aside to use in the next step. This is the zester I like to use to zest citrus fruit.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar, orange zest, pecans, raisins, and rum extract until combined. Spoon the mixture into the middle of the ring shape.
- Wrap the dough from the outside of the circle to the inside of the circular shape, pinching the dough together to seal it and tucking the edge under the middle.
- Place the baking sheet and a draft free location and allow the bread to rise for 30 minutes.
- Bake the king cake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the dough is golden. Play some baking sheet on a wire rack to cool.
- To make the glaze: Mix together the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the ring allowing some to drip down the sides.
- Sprinkle the frosting with the colored sugars, alternating the colors. Prior to serving, insert the baby somewhere under the king cake. Slice and serve.
Notes
Tips, Tricks, and FAQs
- Instead of the raisin filling, you can do a cream cheese filling.
- Use canned cinnamon rolls for an even easier version of king cake.
- Or, use your favorite cinnamon roll recipe and instead of cutting the rolls, form the dough into a circle.