For my Mardi Gras Bunco that I hosted, I made quick and easy Mini King Cakes.

Here is the quick semi-homemade recipe.

Mardi Gras Mini King Cakes:

(makes 16 cakes)

3 cinnamon roll packages

1 4 oz. Cream cheese, softened

your choice of pie filling

colored sugar or sprinkles

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease two muffin tins (I used a 12-muffin tin and a 6-muffin tin pan.)

2.  Fill 16 muffin spots with a cinnamon roll (2 cinnamon roll packages).  Save the third package for later.

3.  Make a hole in the middle of the cinnamon roll and add your choice of 1 spoonful of pie filling.  (I used cherry and lemon.)

4.  Open your third cinnamon roll package and cut each cinnamon roll in half.  Cover each cinnamon roll in the muffin pan with a half of roll you cut and squeeze sides together.

5.  Now bake your cinnamon rolls in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

6.  While rolls are baking, make your icing.  Simply mix the icing from the cinnamon rolls with the cream cheese.

7.  When rolls are finished cooking, let them cool for 3-5 minutes.  Spread icing mixture on each cinnamon roll.

8.  Sprinkle each cake with purple, yellow and green sugar or sprinkles.

Note:  To keep with the tradition of putting a small plastic baby in the king’s cake, you can hide a plastic baby in one of the cakes and see which guest gets it.