{Fake} King (Cup) Cakes!

Did you ever just have one of those recipes that made you go crazy?  You follow along, you make sure you're doing everything exactly the way it's been written, and then it flops just the same??

This is not that recipe.  Well, okay, it started out that way, but I just ditched all pretense of following along after a certain point and I just started to wing it.  Yes, I "wung" it.

While I'd normally say that that's a bad idea for me to follow through with, this time it actually worked out okay, and in the long run this is a much more simple way to make individual king cakes.  Not exactly a win-win, but a better than lose-lose for sure!  The original recipe can be found over with the Foodie Bride, but the dough on that liquified at some point.  I won't get into it, but the following is my "no-fail" recipe!

Ingredients (dough):
2 cans of crescent roll dough
4 T melted butter
Ingredients (cream cheese filling):
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 C + 2T sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Ingredients (glaze):
3/4 C powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3-4 tsp water
yellow, green, and purple decorating sugar

Directions:
1. Mix up cream cheese filling ingredients.
2. Roll out cresent dough into two long rectangles per can of dough (1 rectangle for each segment of 4 crescent rolls - 4 total)
3. Brush each with 1 T of melted butter, leaving the top 1" dry.
4. Divide cream cheese filling in fourths, and spread evenly over each rectangle of dough, leaving top 1" dry.
5. Starting with the long side of dough closest to you, roll jelly-roll syle.  Pinch the last inch of dough onto the roll and place it seam side down on your counter.
6. Lightly roll/pat/pull the roll so the diameter is even in its length.
7. Slice into 1" thick rolls (each rolled rectangle should make 6 sliced rolls - 24 total).
8. Place each roll into a paper lined cupcake tin.
9. Bake about 15 minutes at 375, or until lightly browned

As the cakes are cooking, whisk together the glaze ingredients.  Slowly add water until you get a smooth and thick, but scoopable glaze.

Spoon glaze over the cooled cupcakes, then sprinkle them with the colors of Mardi Gras.  Try to make them within a day or two of eating them. 

If you're really making these for Mardi Gras, and not just for fun, make sure to hide a king in one, or at least a little red bean - just make sure to warn everyone who may be unsuspecting.  You don't want a cracked tooth!

I loved these little King Cakes.  They definitely help to set the mood, and while they didn't turn out ANYTHING like I had expected, I think the crescent dough really helped to save them (and my sanity) in the process.  Not bad for a "faker" recipe, not bad at all!

(Oh, and for those of you celebrating that king today, Happy Easter!)