These Mardi Gras King Cake Bites are easy to make and filled with cinnamon and cream cheese and topped with icing and colored sugar.
We lived in Louisiana for over 12 years and one of our favorite things about Louisiana is the food! They have some of the best food – it’s so flavorful and delicious! While we miss a lot of the food (although we have a neighbor in Texas that’s from Louisiana and opened a restaurant here), we particularly miss King Cake during Mardi Gras.
King Cake is served during the Carnival season leading up to Mardi Gras starting on King’s Day (January 6th) until Fat Tuesday. King Cake is made using sweet cinnamon dough and sometimes has a filling. It is then topped with icing and colored sugar.
I have made King Cake Bread Pudding in the past which is a favorite, but this year I decided to try something different. I wanted something that has the flavors of King Cake but in bite-size pieces.
I used one of my favorite King Cake flavor combinations – cinnamon and cream cheese. My family loved these Mardi Gras King Cake Bites so much that they ate them all really fast.
Mardi Gras King Cake Bites
In a bowl for your mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract.
Next, open the cans of crescent roll dough and separate the dough along the perforated lines. Then take one triangle at a time and roll the dough into a ball, separate each ball into two, and flatten each ball into a circle.
Sprinkle each circle of dough with cinnamon and then top with about 1/2 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture.
To close each circle, stretch the dough over and around the cream cheese mixture and pinch to close. Place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet seam side down.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Let the dough cool completely before glazing so that it does not roll off.
To make the glaze, combine in a small bowl powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Then dip the top of each ball into the glaze and top it with sprinkles.
Mardi Gras King Cake Bites
Ingredients
- 2 cans crescent roll dough
- 1 pkg cream cheese, room tempature
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a bowl for your mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Next, open the cans of crescent roll dough and separate the dough along the perforated lines. Then take one triangle at a time and roll the dough into a ball, separate each ball into two and flatten each ball into a circle.
- Sprinkle each circle of dough with cinnamon and then top with about 1/2 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture.
- To close each circle, stretch the dough over and around the cream cheese mixture and pinch to close. Place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet seam side down.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Let the dough cool completely before glazing so that it does not roll off.
- To make the glaze, combine in a small bowl powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Then dip the top of each ball into the glaze and then top with sprinkles.
