Cake Mix Mardi Gras Cake

Cake mix Mardi Gras cake recipe! A fun way to celebrate with your kids or friends at a party and see who gets the baby in their slice for luck! Just one of our favorite cake mix hacks we love.

Easy King Cake Recipe

I lived in a small town North of Louisiana for a few years and went there often for shopping and, well, fun! While I was there I learned and saw the fun festivities surrounding Mardi Gras. Years later when I taught Kindergarten one of the room moms ordered an authentic king cake for us to enjoy and it was really fun!

Typically king cakes are more of a danish consistency but I really just wanted to have an easy way to share the celebration with my kids so I used boxed cake mix instead….I told you, I like easy.

Of course you need the traditional purple, yellow, and green colors. A little plastic baby is needed to hide inside the cake for one lucky person to find. They say that person will have luck the rest of the year. You can read about the history of Mardi Gras here and share while you’re eating it if you like. 😉

Ingredients

1. Bundt pan will give you the shape you need
2. Small plastic baby is hidden inside to be found
3. White cake mix (and items needed to make it, on box)
   • if you wanted to make it as a pudding cake you’d need instant mix
4. 1 tub vanilla frosting
5. Purple sugar sparkles sprinkles
6. Green sugar sparkles
7. Yellow sugar sparkles
8. Cake plate

If you’re making Mardi Gras cupcakes (shown below) or you want to layer the colors inside your bundt pan for this easy Mardi Gras cake recipe you’ll need yellow, green and purple food coloring Here’s a quick video showing you how to make it:

Video

King Cake Recipe with Cake Mix

You can find all items at Walmart as well if you don’t shop online…but that is how I do almost all my shopping nowadays! Options for including the Mardi Gras plastic baby into the cake

• Push it into the batter like I did in the video above
• Bake the cake, then push the baby into the bundt cake, and then flip it over on to a cake plate
• Frost the top
• Allow cake to fully cool, flip over on to a cake plate.
• Then melt frosting in microwave for about 45 seconds and pour on to cake.
• Wait until frosting has slid all the way down the cake and then add sprinkles like you see here, done!

Tips

** Warning – this is obvious to most of us but cut pieces small so you can see which slice has the baby as you’re passing it out if you are serving it to children especially. You do not want anyone to swallow the baby or bite down on it and hurt their tooth.

The best way is to slice, look on both sides for the baby, and when you see it whomever was next to be passed out to is “the lucky one”, show them the baby is inside their slice.

If you love this easy Mardi Gras cake and you’re celebrating with your kids you should check out our post on Mardi Gras crafts for kids too!

How to Make Mardi Gras Cupcakes

1. We make this as one of our boxed cake mix recipes so make batter as directed on box first.
2. Separate batter into 3 bowls
3. Add food coloring to each bowl (yellow, green and purple traditionally)
4. Stir
5. Put bowls into the fridge
6. When batter is cold and thick spoon one color into the bottom of each cupcake hole that’s been sprayed with non stick spray with NO liner
7. Follow that by the 2nd color
8. Top each one with the 3rd color
9. Bake immediately

Colors shouldn’t run into each other this way. Then when cooled push 1 baby into the bottom of one of the cupcakes. Pass them out and see who finds it.

Want another YUM to make with this same pan? Try our banana bread bundt cake next. You can make that year round. A fun activity to add to the day? Print out these free Mardi Gras coloring pages and let them go with some crayons.

What are the colors of Mardi Gras?

Yellow, green and purple are what are synonymous with this popular holiday. Typically you would feature all three layered or in separate sections on top of a cake, cupcakes or other desserts to celebrate.

Why is there a baby in the Mardi Gras cake?

The King Cake is associated with the celebration of Epiphany (or Twelfth Night), which commemorates the visit of the Three Wise Men to baby Jesus. Traditionally, the King Cake season begins on January 6 (Epiphany) and runs through this holiday date.

What dessert is eaten on Mardi Gras?

Besides King Cake, you’ll also find other delicious treats, especially in New Orleans and Louisiana like;

• Beignets: Fried dough pastries dusted with powdered sugar, often enjoyed with coffee at places like Café du Monde.
• Pralines: Candied pecans with a creamy, caramelized sugar coating, a classic Creole treat.
• Bread Pudding: Made with French bread, custard, and sometimes spiked with bourbon sauce, it’s a decadent dessert found year-round in New Orleans but especially popular during this time.