Mardi Gras Mini King Cakes with Tiny Mask Toppers!
Take any thing, make it in a smaller version of its regular form, and it automatically becomes cute, right? We think this definitely applies to these  individual-sized King Cakes. I teamed up with my favorite baker Elyssa of Mixed Bakery again for this fabulous doll-sized Mardi Gras Treat!
For step-by-step instructions and a free mini-mask printable to decorate your cake, click through. You’ll be glad you did!
First we made a simple brioche dough. You can use any recipe, even pre-made dough in those pop-apart cans will work.  Then we made a tasty King Cake filling.
There are several different fillings that are popular with King Cakes. Some of them involve almond paste or cream cheese. We opted to make a lighter filling with almond flour that is nutty and delicious. Below is our recipe but you could easily substitute many similar items to get a filling that is perfect for you.
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 TBS ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
Combine ingredients with melted butter. Add raisins last (so they don’t get too mushed up while mixing).
Divide your brioche dough into 8-10 equal parts. Roll them out into 4-5 inch flat rectangles. Add a tablespoon or two of your filling mixture to the middle. If you want to insert a nut or bean (or a heat-proof plastic baby) for tradition, now is the time to do that (obviously placing a toy inside a cake can be a choking hazard so please please please use common sense and if you decide to do this, alert the cake eater to inspect each piece of cake before biting into it.).
Next, roll up the long side of the rectangle until the filling is enclosed inside like a roll. Wrap your roll around into a circle and pinch it closed (sometimes the dough doesn’t stick but don’t worry, when it bakes it will.)
We placed our round brioche rolls into tart papers but you could place them into ramekins or even a muffin pan if you don’t mind them being a bit more squished. These crumb cake paper molds worked perfectly for ours.
Once they were in their paper cups, we snipped them with scissors to create vents for heat to escape. Then we set them in a warm place to rise or “proof” for 20-30 minutes. A good test to see if your dough has “proofed” enough for baking is to lightly press your finger or thumb into the bread. If it springs back to shape it’s ready. If it stays indented it needs more time.
When ready, we baked them. We baked our King Cakes for about 12 minutes but this will depend on the type of dough recipe you use for your brioche. If you are using pop-apart dough follow the directions on the can.
Once our mini King Cakes were baked they were ready to decorate. My favorite part!
For decorations like ours you will need:
- a simple powdered sugar glaze (recipe below)
- sanding sugar in purple, green and yellow
- decorative pearl sprinkles (to simulate a mardi gras necklace)
- our cute mini Mardi Gras mask printable (click here to print)
To create the glaze, combine powdered sugar with a small amount of cream or half and half and a splash of vanilla. There are no exact measurements for this recipe (believe me, I asked but Elyssa assured me that real bakers just eyeball it too). Basically you just want to combine the powdered sugar and milk until you get the desired consistency.
Like so.
Then she taught me out to make a cornet. You could use a plastic bag and cut off the tip but I thought it was pretty cool how she made this fancy French cone out of a piece of parchment paper. Here’s a pretty good tutorial if you would like to try to make one too.
And just like that we were ready to decorate our cuter than cute mini King Cakes!
First spread the glaze in a zig zag around the top of the cake and then add sprinkles of sanding sugar in green, purple and yellow. Then we topped that with some silver pearls and stuck in our tiny doll-sized Mardi Gras mask.
To create this Mardi Gras mask, print out the printable and use an exacto knife to cut out each mask. Fold it around a toothpick and insert a tiny feather, if you have them. Close the mask around the feather and toothpick with small pieces of double-stick tape.
That’s that! Pretty enough for a very small king or a princess and her doll!
Happy Mardi Gras!
