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You are here: Home / College Recipes / How to Make King Cake with Crescent Rolls -My Popular King Cake Recipe!

How to Make King Cake with Crescent Rolls -My Popular King Cake Recipe!

January 24, 2024 by Holly Clegg 9 Comments

How To Make King Cake Recipe with Crescent Rolls! Easy New Orleans King Cake Recipe!

How to make king cake?  This simple homemade New Orleans king cake recipe one of Holly Clegg’s most popular healthy easy recipes. We bring this crescent roll king cake recipe back every year due to popular demand! This New Orleans king cake recipe is better than the ones you buy in the store. And, honestly, you can whip this easy king cake recipe up in minutes with reduced-fat crescent rolls–no complicated yeast dough here! This recipe is from  Gulf Coast Favorites Cookbook filled with Louisiana Cajun healthy recipes! Plan your party with our easy Mardi Gras Party Menu- Easy Chicken Gumbo to Crescent Rolls King Cake!

@thehealthycookingblog Going to make it a brighter purple next time 💜💚💛 recipe at TheHeathyCookingBlog . Com #kingcake #neworleansmardigras #easykingcake #kingcakerecipe #crescentroll #crescentrolls #crescentrollrecipe #crescentcity #crescentrollkingcake #healthierdessert ♬ Part Of It – Jordan Davis

Print Recipe
Easy King Cake Recipe with Cream Cheese Cinnamon Filling
Servings 16 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 (8-ounce) cans reduced-fat crescent rolls
  • 4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese
  • 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • Mardi Gras Icing
Servings 16 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 (8-ounce) cans reduced-fat crescent rolls
  • 4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese
  • 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • Mardi Gras Icing
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven 350°F. Coat 10-inch round pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray.

  2. Separate crescent rolls at perforations, into 16 slices. Place slices around prepared pan with points in center. About halfway down from points, press seams together.

  3. In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Spread on dough in center where seams have been pressed together.

  4. In another small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon with fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over cream cheese. Fold dough points over filling and then fold bottom of triangle over points forming a circular roll like a king cake.

  5. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly and drizzle with colored Mardi Gras Icing.
Print Recipe
Mardi Gras Icing
Servings
Ingredients
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp skim milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Yellow, green, red, and blue food coloring
Servings
Ingredients
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp skim milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Yellow, green, red, and blue food coloring
Instructions
  1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients, except food color. Divide mixture into three bowls.
  2. In first bowl, add a few drops of yellow food coloring. In second bowl, add a few drops of green food coloring and in the third bowl, add equal amounts of drops of red and blue food coloring (to create purple).
  3. Drizzle over cooled cake.

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Super Bowl King Cake picmonkey

Super Bowl King Cake

Secret to How to Make King Cake Recipe Homemade: Most Popular Recipe Ever!

You’ll LOVE this cookbook and all the practical southern and Cajun recipes-all healthy with nutritional information.  Most importantly, all the recipes are made with everyday ingredients!

No matter the time of year, this crescent roll king cake recipe ranks most popular recipe in this cookbook. Keep this New Orleans king cake recipe seasonal by just changing my icing colors to go with whatever theme holiday it is. Go Pink for Valentine’s Day , go patriotic for the red, white and blue holidays and even your favorite team colors like LSU purple and gold – Geaux Tigers! Starting with reduced-fat crescent rolls with a luscious rich cream cheese filling with lots of cinnamon makes this recipe hard to beat for the taste and it’s so simple.  Gulf Coast Favorites cookbook includes all your favorite healthy Cajun recipes, made EASY!

 

 

Super Bowl King Cake XLIX 2014

Super Bowl King Cake XLIX 2014

Saints Black and Gold King Cake

Saints Black and Gold King Cake

Homemade King Cake Testimonial:

From Twitter: @PastorJoelle (From IL) Beautiful King Cakes! My favorite recipe comes from Holly Clegg:  We taste-tested your recipe against a yeast-based recipe and a store bought cake. Yours won easily!! The yeast-based recipe I used created a Gambinos-esque recipe & the store bought was from Kroger

STEP BY STEP PHOTOS:  Crescent Roll King Cake Recipe from Holly’s Louisiana cookbook

Check out the YouTube video to watch Holly Clegg make this amazing homemade king cake recipe! Scroll down for step by step photos to make this easy New Orleans king cake recipe wherever you live! Even makes a fun kid’s project and always a yummy breakfast or snack.  So, don’t save this homemade king cake just for Mardi Gras.

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Find All of Our Favorite Easy Healthy Cooking Must Haves Here:

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Get Favorite Louisiana Menus: Four Menus Full of Recipes with Cajun Flair!

Louisiana menus

Team Holly is so excited to give you Holly’s 25 Favorite Football Tailgating Recipes available for only $1.99! Included are dips, pick-ups, hearty food and the best of Holly’s sweet treats.  Best of all, it comes with a SHOPPING LIST so all the work is done for you from your menu to your grocery run!

Healthier and EASY-TO-MAKE recipes with the nutritional information.  If you have health concerns, gluten-free and diabetic-recipes are highlighted.  DOWNLOAD  this great menu of party option.

All You Need Is A Large Round Pizza Pan That Doesn’t Warp When Cooking!


OXO Non-Stick Pizza Pan, 15 InchOXO Non-Stick Pizza Pan 

All you need is a round pizza pan which you probably already have at home, like this large nonstick pizza pan to make this homemade king cake recipe. Make sure it is a good one so it doesn’t warp when baking.

Make sure you have a 15-inch round pizza pan to give your king cake room as this recipe creates a nice size king cake. You can use the round pan for so many recipes.

How to Make A King Cake: Watch Holly Make Easy King Cake Known as Crescent Roll King Cake

As Good As A New Orleans King Cake Recipe And Fun To Make with Kids!

Who Dat NFL Saints King Cake picmonkey

Who Dat NFL Saints King Cake

Gel Food Coloring Perfect For Easy King Cake Recipes

Food Coloring Liqua-Gel - 12 Color VarietyFood Coloring Liqua-Gel – 12 Color Variety

We are so excited to discover gel food coloring! These gel food colors are so much easier to use and don’t get all over you. I

They also have a great selection of colors making your choices endless. The kids and/or grand kids LOVE to use food coloring and this was my best discovery for lots of colors and easy-to use! Betty Crocker gel colors are also great for a a starter with primary colors.

Wait Until You Try Holly’s Savory King Cake Recipe: Crawfish King Cake

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Crawfish King Cake recipe is going wild and one bite of this easy king cake with creamy crawfish cream cheese filling and you’ll know why. A healthy king cake and a savory king cake. Gulf Coast Favorites cookbook includes 30 minute recipes from a Louisiana Kitchen and they are healthy easy recipes!! Are you a crawfish fan?

Get All of Holly’s Healthy Easy Cookbooks

Filed Under: College Recipes, Kid Recipes, Louisiana Recipes, Mardi Gras, Seasonal Tagged With: best king cake, cajun recipes, classic Louisiana, crescent roll king cake, healthy king cake recipe, how to make king cake, king cake recipe

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kim Lawton

    March 24, 2019 at 8:49 pm

    Totally missed Mardi-Gras and Fat Tuesday😵. Decided to treat ourselves anyway and tried your recipe for King Cake. It was AMAZING! So much better and larger than the ones I was purchasing from our local stores. Easy-Peasy to make and tastes delicious? Check and check!! Thank you for this great recipe.

    Reply
    • goodcook

      March 24, 2019 at 10:46 pm

      Hi Kim, I have to say it’s one of our favorites and I make it year round and use different colors for the icing. Fun for Easter, Memorial Day…thanks for taking time to let me know. You made my day!

      Reply
    • goodcook

      May 8, 2019 at 9:45 pm

      It’s one of our favorites and we make it year round. So glad you liked it!!!

      Reply
  2. Janis Hudson

    February 9, 2019 at 4:19 pm

    Hi Kelly,
    Have loved and bought King Cakes for years. Made my first yesterday. Husband disappointed because it did not have fruit so found yours. Crescent roll dough fabulous idea!
    Saw you Arthritis cookbook, but concerned when looking at the photos and reading comment that many of the recipes contain inflammatory ingredients. Please let me speak to that issue:

    Twenty-three years ago, my arthritis pain was so intense, I believed I had only one more year left to work. A friend told me about night-shades and gave me Carlton Fredericks, “Arthritis: Don’t Learn to Live with It”. Simple, nightshades (night blooming plants) contain inflammatory chemicals. Simple acronym, PPET – potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes. Don’t eat them.
    I love all these vegetables. However, finally realized: no cost and all I had to lose was pain. It doesn’t cure arthritis, but it stops inflammation and the pain that comes with it. Takes three weeks to purge one’s system of effects from previous eating. Tried it. It works, Shared it, all who tried it found the same results as mine. Tom Brady and Gisele whole heartedly embrace this practice and he credits his longevity in the NFL to this practice.
    Problem: difficult in an epicurean world that demands all of these ingredients.

    Does your Arthritis cookbook address this issue? If so I will buy it, if not, is there a possibility that you could work on it in the future? Would be glad to share more about what I learned in the last 23 years.

    Best,

    Janis Hudson

    To my knowledge, the AMA has not recognized Dr. Fredericks; he is after all a Ph.D. 🙂

    Reply
    • Holly Clegg

      February 9, 2019 at 11:27 pm

      Hi Kelly, Thanks for taking time to write. I also understand about the night shades and there are different theories on it. However, my arthritis cookbook is mainstream and addresses foods that fight inflammation. Just as you said, it is hard to follow any rigid diet with too special of ingredients. My books are meant for everyone to help them learn to eat healthier and better for their condition but I include simple recipes with one-stop shopping ingredients. My hope is to help people make lifestyle changes that they will incorporate into their own lifestyle. So, to answer your question if you would like the book. It has great information with easy recipes but not with an extreme focus to any diet. There’s sample recipes on my blog and maybe that will give you an idea if it would fit your needs or not. Again, thanks for writing and I appreciate your input.

      Reply
  3. Ann Hughes

    February 13, 2018 at 12:38 am

    I made this tonight for our Bible Study before Fat Tuesday. (I also made your gumbo which was so yummy!) It was so easy and delicious! Everyone loved it. I generally hate to bake…this was a big success for me. I live in CA…it’s hard to find King Cakes here and when you do, they aren’t very good.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Holly Clegg

      February 13, 2018 at 10:30 am

      Hi Ann, LOVE this story and so glad I could give you a taste of Louisiana in California. All my recipes are easy and glad you are enjoying them. Happy Mardi Gras and thanks for commenting and hope you keep on cooking.

      Reply
  4. Holly Clegg

    December 30, 2017 at 12:14 pm

    Thanks Kourtney for sharing this note with me about my easy king cake recipe:
    I am 24 years old and was recently diagnosed with pre type 2 diabetes in the fall. As soon as King Cake season came around it made me depressed to go to the stores and see the King Cakes covered in sugar and filled with overly sweetened fillings that I shouldn’t be eating. I was SO happy to see your lower fat, lower sugar recipe on your blog for a more diabetic king cake (the crescent roll one) I made it tonight and it was AMAZING! It was easy to make and delicious. You are my new hero! Thank you so much!   Kourtney Davison

    Reply
  5. Gail

    March 29, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    Holly, after many failed attempts at making a King Cake (yeast hates me). I happened upon your easy recipe using Crescent Rolls. It was so easy (I watched your video a couple of times). My husband’s b’day was the day after Mardi Gras so I made it for his birthday. Everyone loved it! We live in Tennessee now but born and raised in N.O.L.A. The store bought king cakes are awful here.(kind of like trying to buy New Orleans ‘french bread’ anywhere but New Orleans) Thank you so much for sharing, I will definitely be making this again! I did get carried away with the decorations I admit…Gail

    Reply

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