Nom Nom - Easy King Cake Cupcakes

Mardi Gras season is in full swing right now in Louisiana, and I have been craving king cake lately! I have baked traditional king cakes in the past, and while delicious, they were time consuming and required a lot of ingredients, etc. I also made king cake bars last year (which were divine). However, I saw a recipe for these easy mini king cakes on a recent healthy-living news segment and decided to do a play on that - a delicious easy and quick snack that satisfied my hankering for king cake!

Ingredients: 

• Reduced-fat can of crescent rolls
• Reduced-fat or fat-free cream cheese (8 oz) - softened
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• Icing (I used white, but vanilla or cream cheese would also work)
• 1-2 Tbsp Truvia or other sweetener (optional)
• 8 tsp sugar sprinkles (optional) 
• The traditional colors for Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold/yellow, but I did not have those color sprinkles on hand, so we had red, pink, and blue. :)

Directions: 

1. Mix softened cream cheese in a small bowl with cinnamon and sweetener until blended and smooth.
2. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly onto unrolled crescent rolls.
3. Roll up crescent rolls and put into regular-sized muffin tin. 
4. Bake according to crescent rolls directions (375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes).
5. Remove from oven and top with icing while cupcakes are still warm so it melts over them (I used between 1-2 tsp per cupcake).
6. Sprinkle lightly with sugar sprinkles. 

Cream cheese, cinnamon, and Truvia mixture

Spreading cream cheese mixture onto crescent roll dough

Rolled-up cupcakes before baking

Cupcakes after baking

Finished king cake cupcakes!

Julian approves! :)

This recipe took about 20 minutes from start to finish and they tasted great! My 3-year-old enjoyed getting to help and taste-testing the results. :)

You could also add fruit (strawberries, blueberries, etc.) with the cream cheese mixture when rolling up the dough, which would also be super tasty. 

Each cupcake turned out to be about 205 calories (165 if you use the fat-free cream cheese; I had the reduced-fat on hand), which is less than most slices of king cake. Either way, this is a great way to laissez les bons temps rouler (let the good times roll)!