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 a non-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 Lego man - 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:
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
Mardi Gras King Cake | Keto, Gluten Free
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 5 Large Eggs separated
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 6 tablespoon melted butter divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- ¼ cup +2 tbsp Erythritol divided
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 cup Almond Flour
- 2 teaspoon Cinnamon divided
For the Frosting:
- 2 tablespoon butter softened
- 1 oz cream cheese softened
- 2-3 tablespoon Heavy whipping cream
- 3 tablespoon confectioners erythritol (if you don't have this, simply pulse granular erythritol in a food processor until it resembles powdered sugar)
- ½ tsp vanilla
For the Colored Sugar:
- 6 teaspoon granular erythritol divided
- 2 drops yellow food coloring
- 2 drops green food coloring
- 1 drop Red Food Coloring
- 1 drop blue food coloring
Instructions
- Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F, and thoroughly greasing a Bundt pan.
- 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 , 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.
- 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.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden on top. Allow it to cool before removing from the pan.
- While your cake is cooling, prepare the icing, by combining the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, erythritol and 2 tablespoon heavy cream in a bowl using a whisk until smooth and uniform. If your frosting seems too thick, add an additional tablespoon of heavy cream.
- 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.
Notes
Be sure to read the entire post for tips, tricks, and help troubleshooting.
The nutrition information listed here is only an estimate and is simply provided as a courtesy. It nor any other information within this post should constitute medical or nutritional advice. Be sure to read all packaging and ingredient labels for potential allergens. Optional ingredients are not included unless otherwise specified.
Nutrition
Linda S says
I'm in New Orleans and we are SURROUNDED by king cakes right now. Including the James Beard award winning one! We follow Wheat Belly (wheat free/sugar free) and my daughter's birthday is this weekend. So glad I found your recipe - just hope I can make it as good as yours looks! Now, I just need to find some natural good coloring. Will let you know how it comes out! Thanks for the recipe!
Sabra says
Happy Birthday to your daughter! I am sure that it will look great 🙂 You could try a VERY small amount of turmeric for the gold coloring and maybe spirulina for the green - but I got nothing for the purple!
Rae says
Hi Sabra. What is the serving size for the nutritional Values you provided?
Chelsey Boullard says
Says 1 slice per serving and 12 servings, so 1/12 of the cake per serving.
Maggie says
Taro or beets for purple
Lisa says
Ubi for purple!
Jessica says
Mine was super eggy. 🙁 what did I do wrong?! Help!
Sabra says
It’s hard to say without seeing what you did, but you can sdd a little extra sweetener and/or cinnamon to the batter and see if that helps
audrey says
can i use Splenda instead and also use regular flour? i have looked and looked for a sugar free king cake recipe but it only ever has a recipe for sugar free/gluten free but i only want it to be sugar free.
Will says
I wanted to make mine compatible with the Edgar Cayce diet so instead of egg whites I used whipped cream (about 1/4 cup cream, then whipped). There wasn't much volume and it didn't rise much, but a delicious and rich coffee cake (cake came out dark in color... I might try less cinnamon in the batter, maybe a little more batter or smaller pan.
Kelly says
Can you use Swerve for the sweetener in this recipe?
Sabra says
Yes, swerve is erythritol, so it works perfectly 🙂
Huyen says
So I’ve read that Erythritol is not as sweet as swerve so you would have to use a bit more. Am I correct to assume that if I use swerve instead, I will need to make some conversions? I’m also guessing that since you said Erythritol instead of swerve, I should follow the measurements as stated in your recipe if I am using Erythritol. Thanks
Sabra says
I usually just substitute erythritol for swerve 1:1. To be more precise, it would be 1 cup plus 1 tbsp of erythritol for every cup of swerve which isn't really noticeable in most recipes. Most of my recipes use swerve and erythritol interchangeably unless it's specifically stated in the recipe instructions. Hope that helps!
Sarah says
I made this exactly like the recipe but added about an ounce of extra cream cheese because I love a thick frosting! Turned out wonderful. Thank you for the recipe
Deadria says
Can I use Splenda?
Rita urban says
I made this recipe today, don’t find it has much taste. I used swerve and monk fruit for sugars.
Rae says
I made this and it’s not traditional king cake but for someone doing keto in New Orleans during carnival season it’s an amazing substitute! I added a keto friendly cream cheese filling (doing a praline filling next!) and added the food coloring to the frosting instead of adding the extra erythritol on top. I’d leave pics here if I could. Looks and tastes sooooo good!!! Thanks for the recipe!
Vicki Byrd says
Will you share your cream cheese filling recipe, please??
Jessica Fortenberry says
Would you mind sharing your cream cheese filling recipe. Thank you!!!
Robin M says
Can you please share how and when you filled your King Cake with the cream cheese filling, as well as your recipe?
Chelsey Boullard says
I would love to have that praline filling recipe <3
Rae says
Oh one more thing: What is the serving size for the nutritional values you provided?
Sabra says
Thanks for the awesome review, Rae! I'm so happy to hear that it is getting you through carnival 🙂 The nutrition info I have listed is for 1 serving which is 1/12th of the cake. Hope that helps!
Christal Brown says
Yaaaaayyyyy!!!! Keto King Cake!!!! I love you lego man! LOL
Christal Brown says
*your
Marsanne says
I’m in Baton Rouge and I modified this, adding blueberries and subbing monk fruit for erythritol. I left off the faux sugar topping and put cinnamon in melted butter on top at the end. It’s delicious. THANK YOU.
Karen Shipp says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I am gluten intolerant, and my father is diabetic. The number of gluten-free options has multiplied, but to find something that is both gluten-free and sugar-free — well, it’s almost impossible! And dad always gets excluded because he can’t eat the sugar. This recipe solves that problem. It is delicious, moist and sweet but not too sweet. I substituted xylitol, because I could not find erythritol at the store. But it came out beautifully. Cannot thank you enough!
Maggie says
Do you know how much sugar I would use? I’m celiac, so I need a gluten free recipe, but I use good old fashioned sugar since I can’t do artificial sweeteners. Thanks!
Sabra says
Hi Maggie! You can sub the erythritol equally for regular sugar, just be sure to use powdered sugar for the frosting 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
TayJean says
This tastes like fluffy egg and butter.... the Erythritol I find has a bitter taste as well so I feel like leaving it out of the frosting would have been better 😫 so sorry, but honestly I feel as though I’ve wasted so many precious, expensive ingredients! (And time)
Sarah says
Can I make these into cupcakes or use a regular cake pan? I don’t have a Bundt cake pan.
Sabra says
Hi Sarah! You can make it into cupcakes, or even bake it in a loaf pan. You may need to reduce the cooking time a few minutes for cupcakes, but otherwise the recipe would be the same 🙂
Angelic says
I made this in last season and came back to save the recipe today in preparation for 2021. Thanks for the lovely recipe.
CeCe says
Haven't tried it yet, but with MG season basically dead, thought it would be good to brighten peoples day.. Can you sub monk fruit for the Erythritol?
Ron Clingenpeel says
I can see where this is going and it will be more cakie than bread, but that’s OK. As long as it is not “grain” when you eat it. I am awaiting the end of the baking now.
Frankly, I found this recipe incredibly difficult to follow. The ingredients at the bottom of the page did not make a connection with the directions. The whole web page had ads interspersed, pictures, other items and it made it very, very difficult to follow. I may try downloading it, but to be sure, I won’t ever use another recipe from this website again. It is simply too difficult. Recipes need to be user friendly, and this one was far from that.
Kara says
My cinnamon-sugar filling fell through to the bottom of the bundt pan, where it got stuck. So when the cake came out, it broke into two pieces and left behind all the sweet, cinnamony goodness. As a result, the cake is totally bland! Why did this happen? I used regular sugar - not sure if that matters...
katie says
SO GOOD!! Made this for my best friends lousiana themed birthday & it was a hit! For some reason my batter was thinner & the poor baby melted from the heat from the pan! i wish i could post a picture it was hilarious. So consider placing the baby in the cake after baking lol.
Overall so so good. best king cake i’ve had
Sabra says
I am so glad that it was a hit! I hope that your friend had a happy birthday 🙂
Also - thanks for the tip about the baby 😅
Cori says
This cake is very good!! Will definitely be making this one again!! Thank you!