Mardi Gras King Cake | Keto, Gluten Free (2024)

King Cake is a Mardi Gras staple and now you can in enjoy it without eating a ton of carbs and sugar!

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I grew up in Kentucky, but I was born in Louisiana and my family has a lot of history there. Every year, on Mardi Gras, I prepare a traditional Cajun dish and a King Cake. My kids look forward to it, and I feel like I am sharing a part of my personal history with them.

They tolerate the supper, but they LOVE the king cake. Not only do they love the cake itself, but what they really look forward to is seeing who will find the "baby". Check out that smile on my little guy's face after he found the baby in this year's cake!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about then here is a VERY brief rundown on the history of King Cake:

• The king cake is a tradition brought to New Orleans from France in 1870.
• It's an oval shaped cake that tastes like a cross between a cinnamon roll and a french pastry.
• It is decorated in the colors green, gold and purple. Green is meant to symbolize faith, gold is power and purple which represents justice.
• It is supposed to represent the crown of the three wise men who visited Jesus.
• A plastic baby is hidden in the cake to represent the baby Jesus. Whoever finds the baby in their cake, is named "king for the day" and is supposed to host the party the next year.

I live in Indiana now, and pretty much never find King Cakes (or any mention of Mardi Gras) in the store. Which has always left me to make my own.

Traditional king cake can be a royal pain in the you know what (pun totally intended). Thankfully this recipe is SO easy, and my kids all said that they actually preferred it to a traditional king cake.

I drew inspiration from my Cinnamon Swirl Bread recipe, which has quickly become one of my highest rated recipes! I only made a few small adjustments, making it slightly sweeter and adding some frosting of course, to create a delicious King Cake!

To make this cake:

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F, and thoroughly greasing a Bundt pan. I recommend using anon-stick spray made especially for baking like THIS ONE when you are using a Bundt pan. It can be really tricky to remove a cake from these types of pans, and this spray helps a ton. Be aware, however, that this spray is NOT gluten free and does contain a small amount of flour, so use something else if that's a concern to you.

Next, separate the eggs into 2 large bowls. Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then set them aside.

Add 3 tablespoon of melted butter, vanilla, cream cheese, and 2 tablespoon of erythritol (I use THIS), to the egg yolks. Mix until well combined then add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, baking powder, and almond flour, stirring until everything is mixed well.

Fold the egg whites into the almond flour mixture, and gently mix until you have a uniform batter.

Now, in a small bowl combine the remaining 3 tablespoon of melted butter, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and ¼ cup of erythritol.

Pour ½ of the batter into the prepared pan, then evenly top with the cinnamon/butter/erythritol mixture, and then the remaining batter - ensuring that the batter has been spread to the edges of the pan, covering the cinnamon mixture.

Using a butter knife, make swirls in the bread, keeping the knife vertical to prevent the layers from mixing too much. If you are going to be hiding a baby into your cake, now is the time. Simply pick the lucky spot and push the "baby" down into the batter just until its covered.

You have my permission to laugh at our baby. Just like we can never find king cakes, we also don't have a plethora of plastic babies for sale near us either. We've always used this Legoman - and now it's a tradition 🙂

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden on top. Allow it to cool before removing from the pan.

While your cake is baking, you can prepare the icing, by combining the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, erythritol and heavy cream in a bowl using a whisk until smooth and uniform.

To make the colored sugar for decoration, simply place 2 teaspoon of erythritol into 3 separate bowl and mix each bowl with 2 drops of food coloring. For the purple, use 1 drop of blue and 1 drop of red.

Once you have removed the cake from the pan, top it with frosting and sprinkle with the colored sugar.

Be sure to check out these other great recipes:

• Shrimp and "Grits" | Keto, Gluten Free
• Jambalaya | Keto
• Keto Cinnamon Swirl Bread

If you are looking for more Keto Mardi Gras Recipes be sure to check out my list of the Top 10 Keto Recipes for Mardi Gras!

📖 Recipe