Super Easy King Cake in Around 20 Minutes

I’m going to be honest right up front about this super easy King Cake. Can you really have it done in about 20 minutes? Yeah, actually, you can, not including the time it takes to preheat your oven. If you aren’t hustling through it, it might take you closer to 25 minutes. Close enough.

Is it going to be the most authentic King Cake ever? No, it will not. But, this one is about speed, not authenticity, so I think you’ll forgive me.

Of course, you may not be a regular reader, and you might not just be forgiving me for my lack of authenticity, but rather being excited that you have a King Cake option that you can throw together before whatever gathering or class party that you need to take it for, or maybe just to surprise your kids with it. If so, I feel you. That’s why we came up with this super easy King Cake.

You see, we found out the day before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) that our sons would get extra credit for their French II class if they would bring in a King Cake. Don’t blame the kids – they also only found out the day before. Since they both could use some extra credit points, we jumped at the opportunity.

“Is a store bought one okay?” I asked. “There is no way I’m going to try to figure out a King Cake for the night before you have to take it to school.”

“Yeah,” said one of my kids. “She said it could be homemade or store bought, and that it didn’t have to be fancy.”

Sweet!

Three stores later, we still couldn’t find King Cakes, though paczki were plentiful. I looked up recipes in the store. Our night was full already, and the thought of helping the kids through yeast dough for the first time seemed unappealing.

“Let’s see what we can do with cinnamon rolls!” I declared as we bought enough tubes of cinnamon rolls that I feared people would be concerned for our blood sugar.

What I intended to try didn’t work. I thought I would unroll the rolls and form them into long strands and braid them. Then, I would show the boys how to do it. That was a no go. The rolls didn’t unroll.

Enter plan b. The super easy King Cake that actually only takes about 20 minutes, and still looks like a King Cake with those familiar King cake flavors.

Super Easy King Cake in Around 20 Minutes

There is a printable recipe farther down.

Super Easy King Cake Ingredients

• 3 rolls of premade cinnamon roll dough plus the frosting that comes in the roll (we used Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls)
• Purple sugar
• Green sugar
• Gold or yellow sugar
• Plastic baby doll (optional, if you’re in a time crunch)

Super Easy King Cake Directions

1. Preheat oven according to cinnamon rolls instructions.

2. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. (We upped our ease factor by baking these on the same disposable baking sheet that we were sending it to school on.)

3. Open all cans of cinnamon rolls. (If you’re like me, shriek at least a little each time a can pops.)

4. Set aside all frosting cups for later.

5. Arrange 16 of the cinnamon rolls in an oval shape on the baking sheet.

6. For lack of a better terms, you’re going to squish your remaining eight cinnamon rolls so that they are smaller in the middle and long. (Be sure to look at the picture.) You will make a second ring with these rolls inside the first ring.

7. Bake according to package directions, but don’t over bake! You want your rolls to be done, but still soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

8. If you are adding a plastic baby to your King Cake, this is the time to carefully slice into one of the rolls and place the doll inside.

(Since we had no notice on making this, we didn’t add a baby to ours. Hey – they were getting extra credit either way.)

9. Empty all of the frosting cups that you set aside into a microwave safe bowl. Heat for approximately 20 seconds.

10. Pour the frosting glaze over your King Cake. Spread it out a little bit afterward to be sure you get frosting all over.

Note: If you have added a plastic baby doll, be sure that area is covered so nobody will know that’s the roll with the baby doll inside.

11. Immediately start sprinkling the purple, gold, and green sugars over the King Cake before your frosting begins to harden, which will not take long at all.

Ta da! That’s it. It should take you 20 – 25 minutes, including the baking time on the cinnamon rolls. Your actual time on the recipe should only be about 5 minutes.

Again, this is not the most authentic King Cake, but it’s a great substitute when you are short on time or willingness to make a multi-hour recipe.

Super Easy King Cake Printable Recipe:

Other Posts You Might Like:

Fat Tuesday: How to Make Authentic Polish Paczki

Planning for Lent: Free Lenten Printable Planning Pages

Lent Activity Page Printable

You also might want to check out all of the other Lent posts and printables on Real Life at Home.