King Cake Cupcakes (Using Crescent Rolls!) Tutorial

In an effort to get y'all excited about the Mardi Gras giveaway coming soon AND to make King Cakes a little more accessible for those not in Louisiana, I've created these King Cake Cupcakes. I've filled these with sweet cream-cheese but you can omit the filling all together for a Traditional King Cake or fill them with fruit jam or chocolate. Just experiment!

King Cake Cupcakes (makes 8 cupcakes)

Ingredients

Dough:
2 tubes of crescent rolls (I like the crescent roll seamless dough sheets for this)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbl ground cinnamon

For the filling:
1 block of cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbl lemon juice
1 Tbl water (or omit the lemon juice and use 2 Tbl water)

Step 1


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a stand mixer- beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla extract until combined, set aside.

Step 2


In a bowl, combine the 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 Tbl cinnamon. Set aside.

Step 3

On a lightly floured surface, unroll both crescent roll doughs, and pinch together the diagonal seams. If you are using the seamless dough sheet, cut each sheet into four rectangles. You should have 8 rectangles of dough total. Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the dough, evenly.

Step 4



Spread a heaping tablespoon of cream cheese down the long end of each rectangle.

Step 5


Roll up each rectangle, long ways, like a cigar. Pinching the ends closed.

Step 6


Fold the left side over to the middle. Then fold the right side over on top of the left side. You are essential "rolling" them up, gently.

Step 7


You should have what looks like a cinnamon roll, seam side up.

Step 8



Place the rolls, seam side up in a greased cupcake tin.

Step 9


Cover with tinfoil and bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes, then uncover and bake 12-15 minutes more. The internal temp should register at 190 degrees.

Step 10

Let cool for 10 minutes before you try to remove them from the pan. While they cool, make the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and water.

Step 11



Once the cupcakes are removed from the tin, drizzle them with the glaze and sprinkle with purple, green, and gold sugar sprinkles.








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Comments

Dannette said…
omg, wow!! I cant wait to make these, I bet they are low in fat too, LOL!! Wishful thinking Hugs
Becky said…
wow! this looks great...cant wait to make them:)
These are so cute! And I live in Louisiana too! We're neighbors :)

Thanks for linking up to What's New Wednesdays! Just wanted to let you know I featured your recipe on today's What's New Wednesday! I hope you'll stop by and link up more amazing stuff :)
Thank you Courtney! I'm currently doing a giveaway for Mardi Gras. Winner gets a King Cake gift basket from Haydel's Bakery in New Orleans overnighted to their house! Make sure you enter! And where abouts (generally speaking) are you? I'm in Southwest Louisiana! Oh, and I linked up today, too!
Anonymous said…
http://www.ucg.org/bible-faq/what-mardi-gras-should-christians-celebrate-mardi-gras-shrove-tuesday
That was a really interesting read! I admit, I don't celebrate Mardi Gras as much as I just eat Mardi Gras King Cake during the season. LOL! I'm not Catholic either, so I didn't know the correlation to Lent, but thanks for linking!
Danielle said…
Hi! I just made these and b/c I halved my recipe (I only had enough for ~ 4 rolls, em, cupcakes), I prepared less cream cheese. I just eyed the tablespoon I used of cream cheese to look similar to your pics (no exact measurement), but apparently that was too much, because the inside of the rolls were not fully cooked. I left the rolls in the oven longer than prescribed, to make sure the bread cooked through, but that did not help. Should I just distribute a thinner layer and use less cream cheese? I make cream cheese braids for Christmas and I always come up against this problem, albeit on a smaller scale (I put a lot less cream cheese on a larger surface area). Any suggestions? The king (cup)cakes were delicious, by the way! A very easy alternative to the real thing! Would have been even better if they weren't so gooey :). My fault, I'm sure!
Funny you should ask this. I made them yesterday, myself and had the same problem. I went back and updated the recipe to fix it. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 12 minutes, then uncover and bake for 12-15 minutes longer. The internal temp should reach 190 degrees. I don't think it had much to do with halving the recipe or cream cheese to dough ratio. When you try them again, give the new and improved baking method a shot. Let me know if you have any more problems.
Judy said…
I don't get to go to Mardi Gras this year. I'm so trying these!
These are AHHHH-MAZING!! It's been years since I've had a King Cake (ot found the baby)...all the memories are flooding back to me now. And I can't get over that these are made from crescent rolls...score!! Would be delighted for you to link up with us at Mop It Up Mondays (going on through Friday): http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2012/02/mop-it-up-mondays-party-2.html

{HUGS},
kristi
Anonymous said…
Oh my, these look delicious! Think I'm going to try this for my party this weekend.
Question: Do they require refrigeration?
~Just Curious :)
Anonymous said…
Can't wait till Mardi Gras.....making them next week!!

Terry Wingate
Audrey said…
I want to pin these! These are great looking
We used your recipe today and made these for a Super Bowl party. Stop by our blog and check them out! Thanks for sharing!
Unknown said…
What an amazing recipe! However, I do have a few suggestions:

I made my first batch of these on Super Bowl Sunday, and only halfway through the recipe did I realize that it only makes 8, and I needed at least double that! So, needles to say, I ran some *pretty* offensive plays in my local grocery store hours before the Big Game.

1) Perhaps you list somewhere near the top of the recipe that it makes 8?

2) Baking the cakes covered with tin foil first is the key! Keeps them from burning, and makes them less gooey...great tip!

3) My second batch, I am making today in preparation for Fat Tuesday (tomorrow!) I decided this time that I would spread on the cream cheese first, and it was soooo much easier! I used a spoonula on cold Pillsbury dough, then sprinkled on the cinnamon mixture, and they came out perfectly.

Thank you again, and happy baking!



Okay, Ashley, you're a flippin genius. I've never even considered doing the cream cheese first and then the cinnamon/sugar. LOL! DUH! And yes, I'm happy to edit and mention it only makes 8. =D Glad you liked them!!
Unknown said…
These cupcakes are incredible! However, I got fed up with trying to spoon on the cream cheese filling, so I ended up piping the cream cheese filling onto the dough with a gallon ziplock bag. That worked like a dream.
Anonymous said…
I'm curious, if you use an 8 oz. block of cream cheese, how do you not wind up with a ton of extra cream cheese? I haven't tried to do these yet, but just curious, before I try.
Amye Wilson said…
Has anyone baked these with a plastic baby inside them? I'm wondering if it would work well? My kids would love trying to pick which one had the baby in it!
Anonymous said…
Can you add fruit fillings in these also?
Anonymous said…
LOOKS SO DELICIOUSSSSSSS
Anonymous said…
I don't think the baby is baked in...it is added after it is baked
Anonymous said…
Can these be made ahead and frozen??
Unknown said…
You add the baby later.
The fruit filling can be piped in after they cool, kinda like filling a donut.

I just made these, they are cooling at the moment. Upon removing the foil I realized that I rolled them up the wrong freaking way lol, and my kitchen was too warm bc the dough got super soft really fast!! Serious blonde moment!!!
They are HUGE but look delicious.

I'm going to try again this weekend, but I'll put the ac on first :)
Anonymous said…
Thanks for this recipe. We used to live in Louisiana but have since made our way north. Every year we have King's Cake overnighted to us because we love the taste. I can't wait to give this a try.
Unknown said…
I just made these and my filling came out of most of them...what did I do wrong?
Unknown said…
Should they be refrigerated? ?
Gabby said…
Yum! These look amazing. I'm pinning this on Pinterest. I'm from Louisiana but we now live in Texas.
Carl Arceneaux said…
Just moved to Clearwater Florida from Lafayette La. Was thinking about getting a king cake shipped but that is expensive. This is a neat option. Thanks.
Anonymous said…
Has anyone made smaller ones as to stretch 8 muffins to 16? If so how did you change the fold and cooking time?
Anonymous said…
I'd like to know if you can stretch this recipe as well!!
Terri Streams said…
Made these tonight!!!! Absolutely DELISH!!!!!!!
Anonymous said…
Interesting post. I Have Been wondering about this issue, so thanks for posting. Pretty cool post.It 's really very nice and Useful post.Thanks cakes in orange county

This looks amazing. I had store bought king cupcake and enjoyed it, but this makes me yearn to make one of my own!

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