The Easiest Kid-Friendly King Cake Recipe

The Easiest Kid-Friendly King Cake Recipe

We don’t know about y’all, but we’re ready to celebrate Mardi Gras with our kids in New Orleans! If you are looking for an easy kid-friendly Mardi Gras activity to enjoy with your kids, here is a kid-friendly king cake recipe that is manageable enough for a weeknight. We make these in our house for either breakfast or dessert during Mardi Gras, and they never fail to impress children of all ages. If you have a group of New Orleans kids getting together for a birthday party or Girl Scouts / Boy Scouts, this is a fun activity to engage them! While the kid-friendly king cakes bake, you can always read them a few books about Mardi Gras or talk about the history of Carnival. Regardless, these kid-friendly king cakes are easy to complete because they are semi-homemade and very interactive for kids. My daughter loves unrolling the dough, twisting the dough and mixing the sugar colors. This is an easy way to prepare small New Orleans children for the magic that is Mardi Gras! Our other favorite is making shoebox floats, a must do for all New Orleans kids.

Ingredients for kid-friendly king cake ::

  • Cooking spray such as Pam
  • Two cans of refrigerated cinnamon roll dough
  • 3 cups of sugar
  • Cinnamon
  • Food coloring (red, blue, green, yellow)

Directions for kid-friendly king cake ::

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray two baking sheets with cooking spray. Open the two cans of dough and separate the rolls. Taking two cinnamon rolls at a time, unroll them into straight lines. Pinch one end of the two unrolled pieces together so that they stick. Then twist the two straight lines of dough together. After the entire thing has been twisted, bring the two ends together and pinch them to close the circle.

Place the king cake on the greased baking sheet. Repeat this process until all of the dough has been used. Sprinkle the top of each cake with cinnamon. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

While the dough is baking, separate the 3 cups of sugar into ramekins or small bowls. Add about six drops of food coloring to each bowl to create purple, green and gold. You will need to work the food coloring through the sugar with the back of a spoon. It is not hard, but it just takes an extra minute to work it all the way through for a vibrant color that is completely mixed.

Once the sugar is colored and the dough is finished baking, microwave the icing that came with the cinnamon roll dough for 30 seconds. Pour the warmed icing over each individual cake. Then quickly top each cake with purple, green and gold sugar in whatever combo you would like while the icing is still wet.

This kid-friendly king cake recipe pairs perfectly with a glass of milk and Mardi Gras beads. New Orleans kids have a unique childhood and that it is to be celebrated. Enjoy dozens of Mardi Gras ideas and happy Carnival, y’all!

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