Quick & Easy Lazy King Cake

Craving King Cake but short on time? This Quick & Easy Lazy King Cake recipe is your answer! Get all the Mardi Gras flavors without the fuss. Perfect for busy weeknights or last-minute celebrations. Impress your friends and family without spending hours in the kitchen.

Jump to:

• Ingredients – Here’s What You’ll Need
• Steps to Make Quick & Easy Lazy King Cake
• Recipe Tips and Tricks
• Other Great King Cake Recipes
• Recipe

Ingredients – Here’s What You’ll Need

Steps to Make Quick & Easy Lazy King Cake

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and line a half-sheet pan with a silicone baking mat. Set the pan aside until ready to use. Place powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy whipping cream in a microwave-proof medium size bowl. Then, use an electric hand mixer to combine until smooth and creamy.

2. Open the cans of cinnamon rolls, set the rolls aside, and remove the lids from the icing containers. Microwave the icing for about 10 seconds so that it’s pourable. Add the canned icing to the prepared icing in the bowl. Use the hand mixer to combine. Cover the bowl and set aside until ready to use.

3. Lay the cinnamon rolls in a circle, slightly on top of one another, overlapping in the center of the prepared baking pan. Bake in 400°F oven for 15-18 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire cooling rack. Allow it to cool slightly for about five minutes before adding the icing.

5. Place the bowl with the icing in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds, so that it’s a pourable consistency. After the cinnamon rolls have cooled slightly, about five minutes or so, use a spoon or a small ladle to drizzle the icing over the top of the king cake. I did not let mine cool long enough before adding the icing, and a considerable amount ran off because the rolls were too hot.

6. Then, while the rolls are still hot and before the icing has set, sprinkle purple, green, and yellow sanding sugar alternating over the top.

Embrace the spirit of Mardi Gras with this Quick & Easy Lazy King Cake recipe! It’s so simple that even the most kitchen-challenged can whip it up. Minimal effort, maximum flavor – the perfect treat for a relaxed celebration. Don’t stress about holiday baking. This Quick & Easy King Cake is the perfect shortcut to festive deliciousness. 

Recipe Tips and Tricks

• The extra icing this recipe calls for is a must! For one, in my opinion, the icing that comes with canned cinnamon rolls isn’t enough! And you’re also likely to have some icing run off the King Cake when adding it to the top.

• There are two types of canned cinnamon rolls – ones that unroll and ones that don’t. For this recipe I used the ones that do not unroll, the Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls with Original Icing (it has a red stripe around one of the ends of the can).

• If you can’t find purple, green and/or yellow sanding sugar, you can make your own! Simply place some granulated sugar in a Ziploc bag and add a small amount if gel food color. Then gently massage the bag until the color is evenly distributed throughout the sugar. For a more vibrant color, you can spread the colored sugar on a baking sheet and bake at a low temperature for a few minutes to dry out the coloring slightly before storing it in an airtight container.

• To transfer the whole King Cake off of the baking pan, it’s not going to come off as one big circle, the rolls will not be “stuck together,” the rolls are simply resting on one another. Once cooled, you should carefully move it in sections to a serving platter or large cardboard cake round.

• This is best eaten right after it has been made. Leftovers can be stored in a airtight container for a day or so.

Other Great King Cake Recipes

Recipe