Happy Mardi Gras, y’all! I’ve been making a homemade vegan king cake every Mardi Gras for the past 3 years. I thought this would be a great year to share my recipe since all of the parades and other Mardi Gras events have been canceled due to Covid-19 (**cue the tears**). What better way to spend Mardi Gras Covid Edition than at home making a homemade king cake with your loved ones?! And that’s exactly what I did this year! It was so fun and special to get to make this year’s king cake with my mom – I certainly laughed more than I do when I make it alone!
Below is my vegan king cake recipe I’ve been using for the past 3 years. You can also check out the vide of my mom and I making the king cake below.
Please note that the recipe below is for TWO king cakes.
Dough
- 6 cups of flour
- 2 packets of active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups room temp water
- 1 tbsp flax seed
- 2 1/2 tbsp water
- 1/4 applesauce
- 1 cup of almond milk
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 stick of vegan butter
- 8 oz vegan cream cheese
Filling
- 2/3 organic brown sugar (regular brown sugar can contain bone char. You could also use brown coconut sugar instead)
- 4 tbsp cinnamon
- 2/3 cane sugar (white sugar will work as well but this may not be vegan – this is explained in the video)
- 1 stick vegan stick butter
Icing
- 2 cup of powdered sugar
- 4 tbsp almond milk
- Purple, Green, and Gold sprinkles
Instructions:
- Combine flax seed with 2 1/2 tablespoons of water. Stir and set aside. This will be your flax “egg.”
- Heat pot over low medium heat. Add the butter and cream cheese until melted.
- Add active yeast and a table spoon of sugar to a 1/2 cup of room temp water and let sit for 10-15 minutes.
- Add 1/2 cup of sugar and salt to the melted butter and cream cheese and stir to combine.
- Stir in 1 cup of milk and remove from the heat. Let cool for 5-10 minutes.
- Once cool, add the yeast mixture, apple sauce and flax “egg.”
- Mix in a mixer for 5 minutes on low. Slowly add all 6 cups of flour in while mixing. (If you do not have a mixer, you can do this part by hand).
- Grease a large bowl with butter and let dough sit in the bowl for 2 hours. It’s important to not let it sit for over 2 hours as it will over-prove.
- When the 2 hours is up, combine 2/3 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup of cane sugar, and 4 tablespoons of cinnamon.
- Melt 1 stick of butter.
- Punch the dough some (demonstrated in video lol).
- Cut the dough in half. Place half the dough on a large floured surface. Flip on both sides so that it is all floured.
- Roll the dough out to a rectangle measuring 2.5 foot by 1.5 foot
- Spread melted butter on dough. You should have some left over to put on top of the king cake before baking.
- Spread cinnamon sugar mix all over the dough.
- Roll the dough similar to if you were making cinnamon rolls (this is also demonstrated in the video).
- Place parchment paper on a pan then spray with cooking spray
- Place dough on parchment paper, connect the ends and tuck the bottom.
- Pinch the ends all around so that it’s sealed.
- Cover with a damp towel and let sit for 40 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- When the 40 minutes is up, reheat the melted butter and spread on top of the king cake.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes (30 minutes is plenty of time for my over, so keep a close eye on it. It is ready when it is a light golden color).
- Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons of milk to a bowl and mix.
- When the King cake is out of the oven, you will want to work quickly. Spread the icing in sections, sprinkling a different color on each iced section and move on. You want to make sure you get the sections sprinkled before the sugar cools.
- Let cool and enjoy! Best served when sharing with friends and family – you can safely share with others by dropping it off at their doorstep with a sweet note!
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