Easy Mini King Cake Bites
If you want a fun and easy treat for Mardi Gras, try making Mini King Cake Bites with crescent rolls! These little pastries are soft, sweet, and topped with colorful sprinkles. You don’t need fancy ingredients—just canned crescent dough, cinnamon, sugar, and icing. They’re perfect for sharing
Pin Easy Mini King Cake Bites to make them later.
My mini cinnamon rolls were the inspiration for these mini king cake bites. I’ve been making them for years, more than 20 years, and I always double the recipe now that kids are in the picture.
King Cake is a well-known Mardi Gras tradition. Mardi Gras is the culmination of the season of carnival that begins on Epiphany and ends on Fat Tuesday, also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before Ash Wednesday.
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Why You’ll Love These King Cake Bites
- They are super easy to make.
- Kids can easily get in on the fun of making these mini King Cake Bites.
- Start with refrigerated crescent rolls for an inexpensive treat.
- Serve them for breakfast or dessert.
- Easily mix up the sanding sugars for other occasions. Use red and green for Christmas, blue and white for Hanukkah, or red, white, and blue for July 4th.
- This recipe is easily doubled.
Ingredients
- Refrigerated Crescent Rolls
- Cinnamon Sugar
- Confectioners’ Sugar
- Water
- Pure Vanilla Extract
- Purple, Yellow, and Green Sanding Sugars
Find the full recipe and instructions in the printable recipe card below.
Pro Tip
To make life easier, mix the sugar colors together and sprinkle on the bites. They will look different, of course, but you’ll still have the Mardi Gras colors.
What is a king cake?
Depending on where you live, King Cake has different versions. Most familiar to us in the United States is a sweet twisted cinnamon roll-style dough topped with icing or sugar. Mardi Gras is fun and festive and these individual King Cakes are a nice addition to any celebration.
These mini King cakes are bite-size treats packed with cinnamon sugar, drizzled with a sweet glaze, and topped with decorator sugars in the traditional colors of Mardi Gras – purple, green, and gold.
They will disappear quickly so you may want to double the recipe, which is easy to do since this recipe starts with refrigerated crescent rolls. Enjoy these for breakfast or dessert.
Pro Tip
I usually always have cinnamon sugar in a shaker in my pantry for my kids to use on toast or bagels. It’s easy to make. I mix three tablespoons of sugar with one teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
What do the colors of Mardi Gras mean?
The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. The Rex Parade (the name of the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans) had a theme, Symbolism of Colors, that gave meaning to the colors.
Purple stands for justice, green for faith, and gold for power. It is said they were chosen in 1892.
How do you make King Cake Bites?
When you separate the crescent dough into rectangles, pinch the seams together. Then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on the rectangles.
Starting on the long side of the dough, roll up jelly-roll style and pinch the dough closed. Cut each log of dough into eight pieces.
Fit two cut pieces into each mini muffin tin side by side. Bake according to the instructions in the recipe. Cool completely and decorate.
This is an alternative to making the traditional King cake.
Check out my fun mini version of a Mardi Gras cupcake too.
How do you serve Mini King Cake Bites?
My family likes them for breakfast though they would be an easy dessert for just a few people. As I already mentioned, you can easily double the recipe.
My kids enjoy mini king cake bites with milk while my husband and I enjoy them with coffee.
They could be the sweet part of a heartier breakfast such as my Cheddar and Chive Eggs over Cheesy Hash Brown Waffles. No matter how you choose to serve these mini King cakes they will be a festive treat.
More food for Mardi Gras
If you want to serve my mini King Cakes as part of a larger Mardi Gras celebration, here are some recipes straight out of NOLA.
- Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice – This Red Beans and Rice Stew is creamy, smoky, spicy, and satisfying. It will take you on a mini vacation to Louisiana.
- Cajun Gumbo – A hearty stew made with shrimp or chicken and okra and ready in under an hour.
- Muffuletta Sandwich – A hearty sandwich made with cheeses, Italian meats, vegetables, and a tasty mozzarella spread.
- Dirty Rice – This dirty rice is a version of the traditional Creole dirty rice dish, but made in an instant pot.
More recipes made with Crescent Roll Dough
When time is at a premium sometimes you need easy recipes. Crescent roll dough is great to have on hand for recipes like pizza bites, glazed cherry cheese danish, crescent roll king cake, and apple brie roll ups in addition to this easy mini king cake recipe.
Did you make this recipe? If so, please leave a comment and 5-star review on the recipe card below. If you really love this recipe, please share it on your social media!
Easy Mini King Cake Bites
Ingredients
- 1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls
- 6 teaspoons cinnamon sugar
For glaze:
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Purple, green and yellow decorating sugars
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Spray mini muffin pans (you will need 2) with baking cooking spray. Set aside.
- Unroll crescent rolls and place on cutting board. Separate at vertical perforations, pinching the diagonal perforations together well. You should have 4 rectangles. Sprinkle each rectangle evenly with about 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon sugar and 1 tablespoon of the pecans, if using. Starting at long end roll up jelly roll style pinching seam well. Repeat with each rectangle. Cut into 28 total pieces.
- Place 2 pieces in each mini muffin cup. Snuggle them in together. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 – 12 minutes, until golden. Remove pans to cooling rack. Cool completely in pan. Remove when cool.
To make glaze:
- Combine glaze ingredients in a bowl until drizzling consistency. Swirl glaze covering tops of each mini cake. Do about half and then sprinkle those with purple, green and yellow decorator sugars. Repeat with remaining.
Recipe Notes
Meet Ellen
Recipe Creator ~ Food Writer ~ Food Photographer
Hi, I’m Ellen and welcome to Family Around the Table where I share recipes the whole family will enjoy. They are also easy to make. With 20 years of experience in food writing and recipe creation, you will surely find something for everyone. Read more by clicking About Ellen below.
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So yummy! We’ve used these with other colored sprinkles so we can enjoy them all year! Thanks for a great recipe!
These are so festive and fun! I love making them for Mardi Gras, but I am making with fall colors for the weekend!
That’s a great idea to use fall colors!
These little King Cake buns are so tasty, and I love how easy they are to make. What a fun recipe!
Love making a mini version! The kids had so much fun helping me with the sprinkles!
These came out so adorable! Thank you!! 10/10
Printing this recipe to make for Mardi Gras! Can’t wait.
I love crescent rolls and not only are they delicious they are so easy! Great recipe!
This is a super cute way to make these cakes, and so easy to to! I sprinkled them with my team’s colors and served them for game day!
I love this idea for making easy quick King Cake bites!!! And they’re sooooo festive!
So love this twist on king cake – these bites look like so much fun to make and enjoy. 🙂
I ate so many of these when I was in New Orleans. I am definitely going to have to try making them myself!
Love the flavor of cinnamon and nuttiness of the Pecans. These cute little King Cake Bites look so very special and colorful.
These are so adorable! I love the Mardi Gras colours, just perfect 🙂