Mardi Gras season is upon us, which means it is time to eat king cake.

The sugary and delicious confection is easy to find at local bakeries and grocery stores, but sometimes you want to make your own.

Traditional king cake recipes require making yeast bread dough, which can be intimidating to some. Gulf Coast Media wanted to find a recipe you could make quickly and that is easy to do with children, so we contacted Chef Kimberly Asbury, general manager at BuzzCatz Coffee & Sweets in Orange Beach. Asbury has been a pastry chef for over 20 years and is well known for her confections from cat head biscuits to king cake.

Asbury also volunteers her time to teach the next generation culinary classes in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores throughout the year. She shared this easy king cake recipe using crescent roll dough sheets and a few ingredients that can be found in almost any pantry.

Crescent King Cake

Ingredients:
King cake:
Crescent dough sheet
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 tbsp. cinnamon

Decorations:

Directions:
Mix sugar and cinnamon and set aside. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to the recommended temperature on the package.

Unroll the crescent sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture. Roll the crescent sheet up, transfer it to a prepared baking sheet and form into a ring. Pinch the ends together.

Bake till golden brown. Remove the king cake from the oven and cool on a cooling rack. Once the king cake is completely cool, make the icing.

To make the icing combine sifted powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk in a small bowl and stir. If the icing is thicker than you prefer, add additional milk 1 tsp. at a time until it reaches your preferred consistency.

Pour the icing onto the cooled king cake and spread with a spatula if needed for good coverage. Sprinkle with purple, green and yellow sugar while the icing is still wet.

Slice, serve and enjoy!

Chef’s note: If you have a hard time finding crescent dough sheets, make mini king cakes using crescent rolls. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on each triangle, roll up, pinch the ends together and bake until golden down. Continue the recipe as shown.