Homemade King Cake Recipe...Again

I know I posted this recipe last year, but with Mardi Gras approaching, I thought I'd share it again, only with more pictures and a step by step this time around. :) 

Once again, I used Emeril's Quick King Cake Recipe found HERE, only I omitted the fruit pie filling. If you click on the recipe, you can get a printable version. 

It was just as good as I remembered. :)

Here are the ingredients you'll need...

Crescent rolls, cinnamon, butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, granulated sugar and food coloring.

You'll need the 12 ounce package of crescent rolls like this one.

First, mix up 8 ounces softened cream cheese and 1 cup powdered sugar.

Then mix 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 cup butter.

Unroll crescent rolls in one piece. Press seams together to form one piece of dough.

As you can see...it doesn't have to be perfect. ;)

Then gently spread the butter/cinnamon mixture over the dough.

Then drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese/powdered sugar mixture on top.

Please excuse these pics...I was trying to take them quickly, with one hand, while trying not to get my phone sticky. :) 

Starting at the long end, carefully roll the dough, horizontally, with the filling inside. Then place on baking pan (I lined mine with parchment) with the seam side down in a circle, pinching the ends together and bake at 350 degrees 15-20 minutes.

Here's my (blurry) pic right before it went into the oven.

While it's baking, you can color your sugar. For some reason, the purple color is a little off in this pic.

To color the sugar, I filled three Ziplock bags with 1/4 cup granulated sugar each and added drops of food coloring. 

Here is the formula I used to get these particular shades of yellow, green, and purple:

Yellow: Two drops yellow food coloring

Green: Two drops green food coloring

Purple: One drop blue and three drops red food coloring.

I just put the drops in with the sugar and worked it in by massaging the bag until it was all incorporated.

So, here's what it'll look like when it comes out of the oven...

Definitely not perfect, huh? Ha! It doesn't matter too much what it looks like, because you can cover up any imperfections with the icing. 

After the cake cools, mix up 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, and 1 Tablespoon water for the icing. Pour the icing over the cake and add the colored sugar.

As you can see, mine's still not perfect (far from it, in fact) but it tastes SO good!

I refrigerate mine after I put the icing on.

I got lots of compliments on it. It's so moist and delicious! Much better than the store bought ones, in my opinion. :)

Have you ever made a King Cake? I was surprised at how easy this one was. Y'all have a great day!

~Lisa