KING CAKE CINNAMON ROLLS ARE THE BEST WAY TO BEGIN YOUR FAT TUESDAY FESTIVITIES! FILLED WITH BROWN SUGAR, PECANS, AND A TINY BABY JESUS - THEY BOAST ALL THE CLASSIC FLAVORS OF TRADITIONAL KING CAKE!
I haven’t packed yet. I have to go to the bank. And the drug store. And find the chord to my portable charger.
It feels so weird, after all the waiting and the planning and the prepping, I’m finally on vacation starting tomorrow! And I’m so not ready for it. Go figure.
Procrastination is a very near and dear friend of mine. It’s what I do. Stitched into the fabric of who I am. But! I was actually way ahead of the game with these cinnamon rolls. Like, crazy ahead. I first posted about them on January 16?! Just a few days after the beginning of Epiphany – when it’s all King Cake all the time.
And now, the day before Fat Tuesday (and thus, the end of King Cake season), I’m posting these bad boys. These delicious, nutty, sugary, MAKE AHEAD King Cake Cinnamon Rolls.
Making the King Cake Cinnamon Rolls
They’re simply adapted from my regular cinnamon roll recipe. With a few minor tweaks:
- Use ⅓ cup of sour cream, because I misread my own recipe, but it worked!
- Knead the dough for 10 minutes after it comes out of the mixer. Work it until it passes the windowpane test.
- Add ½ cup of chopped pecans to the cinnamon and brown sugar filling. And a teeny plastic baby Jesus.
- Do all the prep work TONIGHT! Go through the mixing, kneading, first proof, and filling, rolling steps this evening. Cut into 12 cinnamon rolls (I tried the dental floss trick for these and it totally worked!) and place 6 – 8 in a round tube pan (unless you have an obscenely large round pan that will fit all 12 of these fellas). Place the remainders in a small square baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and toss them in the fridge.
- Tomorrow, when you want to bake, pull them out and let them rise for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes before baking and frosting as usual!
- If you add some bourbon to the cream cheese frosting, I won’t tell. Purple, green and yellow sprinkles are a must, too!
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