Got to love a simple cinnamon roll king cake!

Don’t you love it when you have a recipe that is not only simple, but that you more than likely have all the ingredients already? Yep. I am a big fan of these kind of recipes. That is why this simple cinnamon roll king cake is one of my favorites. Bring out the canned cinnamon rolls!

simple cinnamon roll king cake with cream cheese buttercream filling

The tradition of the king cake.

When Mardi Gras season is rolling, we will have a king cake in this house. It is hard not to have a delicious king cake when you are living in Louisiana. The tradition of the king cake is thought to have been brought from France to New Orleans in 1870.

It is decorated in royal colors of purple (justice), green (faith), and gold (power). These three colors were chosen to resemble a jeweled crown honoring the Wise Men who visited the Christ Child on Epiphany (the “Twelfth Day” when Jesus first was seen by the three Wise Men). A tiny plastic baby is placed inside each king cake as a symbol of this Holy Day.

If you are the one to find the baby in your piece of king cake at a party, you are considered “King” for a day and bound by custom to provide the next King Cake.

All the options.

There are so many varieties when it comes to the filling too! If you are wanting to try to make your own but without all the hassle of many ingredients and making your own dough from scratch, then this recipe is for you.

I love the fact that it is simple. You can make it more complicating when it comes to the filling component. Honestly, you can skip this all together if you want to. This cinnamon roll king cake is great without it. I decided to do a cream cheese buttercream filling because I had all the ingredients, so why not?

Yield: 6-8 people

Simple Cinnamon Roll King Cake

When Mardi Gras season rolls in, so does all the king cakes! Here is a simple king cake recipe that you can do at home and include the kids: all with the use of canned cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients

2 cans of Pillsbury Grand Cinnamon Rolls
Green, Yellow, and Purple Sprinkles
*Optional: Ingredients for Cream Cheese Buttercream Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened at room temp
1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp of pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350.
Roll out a piece of parchment paper.
Open the 2 cans of cinnamon rolls. Set the icing aside for later.
Taking 3 cinnamon rolls at a time, unroll them and slightly overlap them. Press these edges down to help seal them.
Continue to do this with the other cinnamon rolls. The last will only have 2 cinnamon rolls.
Next, braid the 3 cinnamon roll segments together.
Then 'braid' and press the beginning and end of the braided cinnamon roll segments to form a circle.
I like to stretch this circle out a little bit.
This step depends on if you want to add the filling. For the cream cheese buttercream filling, check out this recipe and follow the instructions. https://thesoutherlymagnolia.com/pink-macarons-with-a-cream-cheese-buttercream-filling/
You will then use a gallon sized ziploc bag to put filling into different sections of the king cake, opening up the braids and putting a little bit of the filling at a time. Work your way all the way around the king cake.
Bake the king cake for about 23-25 minutes, or until the edges are beginning to look brown.
Allow the king cake to cool completely before adding the icing.
Once cooled completely, add the icing from the cinnamon rolls to the top; if you used filling, you can add some of that filling to the top as well.
Sprinkle green, yellow, and green sprinkles on top.
Enjoy!