Get ready for Mardi Gras! These?king cake cream puffs are perfect for parties since they are individually portioned.
Mardi Gras King Cakes
Mardi Gras is just around the corner and one of my favorite things about Mardi Gras is King Cakes! ?If you have never had one they are like heaven!? And if you’ve heard of Mardi Gras, but have no idea what king cakes are, well you are in for a treat.
What is a Mardi Gras King Cake?
King cakes are frosted cakes that Mardi Gras partygoers eat between January 6th (King’s Day) and Fat Tuesday. They are typically made with brioche dough and have a variety of fillings. They are usually decorated with gold, green and purple sprinkles.
Have you heard of the tradition where they put a baby inside the King cake? I didn’t do that for mine, but sometimes a plastic baby is baked inside the cake. Some people think this odd tradition started as a way to honor baby Jesus. Other’s think it’s a way to crown someone king or queen of the Mardi Gras balls.
King Cake Cream Puffs – A Fun Twist
So as I was thinking about things I want to bake that I’ve never made before Cream Puffs came to my mind. ?Cream puffs are also very heavenly, so I thought what if I made a King Cake Cream Puff! ?I started off by finding a good cream puff recipe with a cream cheese type filling! ?My favorite king cakes have the cream cheese fillings! ?I found this recipe on Real Mom Kitchen?for a lime cream puff but I thought the filling looked perfect. ?I used her recipe except without the lime or food coloring!
King Cake Cream Puffs Recipe
Here is a printable recipe card with my recipe. You will love this! Keep scrolling, because I shared some in-process images to help you as you make your own cream puffs. I love step-by-step pictures, they are so helpful.
- ? cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 cup water
- ? tsp. salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1? cups heavy cream
- 12 oz. of cream cheese, softened
- 1? cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 4-5 tsp water
- Preheat over to 400 degrees F
- In saucepan, combine butter, water and salt and bring to a boil. Add flour, stirring rigorously until the mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.
- Add mixture to a mixer, and beat eggs in one at a time until smooth. If you don?t have a mixer, mix with a wooden spoon.
- On a cookie sheet, drop batter by teaspoons about 4 inches apart. (I used my cookie scoop to drop the batter. I got 26 puffs)
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden. DO NOT open the oven to check until 25 minutes of bake time is over; the puffs will collapse if oven is opened too early. Cool on wire rack.
- Beat heavy cream with a mixer until whipped, and set aside in a bowl in the refrigerator.
- Then start blending the cream cheese with powdered sugar, adding a little sugar at a time until combined.
- Fold in ? of whipped cream by hand until well blended with cream cheese. This will help lighten the cream cheese making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream. Then fold in remaining whipped cream.
- Fill puffs with cream. I used a bag and tip for icing to fill them and they just have a small hole in the side. You can also cut them in half and fill them that way.
- Mix 1 cup of powdered sugar and 4-5 tsp of water or as much water it takes to get to the consistency you want. I make my topping a little runny so that it would just run off the side of the puffs. I then added purple, green, and yellow sprinkles to the top!
How to Make Mardi Gras Cream Puffs Step-By-Step
Here are the instructions with pictures.
1.) Make the Pastry Dough In the Skillet
First, you want to start making the puffs. ?I put my butter, water, and salt into a pan and brought it to a boil.
I then added my flour stirring continuously until it started to look like dough.
2.) Cool the Dough for 20 Minutes
Once it was smooth I took it out of the pan and put it in a bowl to cool for about 20 minutes. ?At 10 minutes like the recipe said mine still felt a little warm so I decided to wait a little bit longer. ?You want it to be cool so it doesn’t start cooking your eggs when they are added!
3.) Add the Eggs
Once this had cool I started adding the eggs one at a time. ?The batter becomes smoother and thins out.
4.) Put the Puffs Dough on A Cookie Sheet
I then used a cookie scoop to scoop them all out onto the pan. ?You don’t want them too close because they do spread some. ?I could get about 12 on a regular sized cook pan.
5.) Bake the Puffs
I then let them bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes. ?Make sure to not open the door at all until 25 minutes because they will flatten out! ?This is a huge step in the recipe so make sure you do this!
6.) Make the Filling
Once they had cooled for about an hour I made the filling and started to put it into the cream puffs. ?The filling is similar to a cream cheese icing.
7.) Put the Filling Inside the Puffs
I used a pastry gun with a metal tip to inject my cream puffs. ?You can also cut them in half and put the filling in the middle and make something that is like a sandwich. ?Injecting them was really easy it just created a small hole on the side of the pastry.
8.) Decorate them Like King Cakes
They were now ready to decorate! ?I decided to make them look like a king cake so I added a basic powdered sugar and water icing to them. ?I made it pretty thin so it would drizzle over the puffs. ?I then added purple, green, and yellow sprinkles to the top!
I let the icing set for about an hour and then they were ready to eat! ?These were delicious and I was told that they tasted like the kind you get in the store so I will take that as a success! ?These are great for any party or event you are going to and they don’t take much time to make!
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These are too cute!
Those came out great! I’ll have to try them.
I’ve never had king cake. Up until recently I didn’t even know what it was!
love these and now obsessed! my favorite thing now that you have posted. My husband will freak making them today for his bday!
He will love them if he loves cream puffs! These are to die for!
I LOVE cream puffs, and will definitely have to try these!
Those sound really tasty. I bet those would go like hotcakes in my house :)
Ok so you hit one of my sweat spots.. every year at the holidays i wait to eat them.. I can eat the entire plate.. I think maybe this year we may try and make them homemade since we now have a recipe.
Those are so cute!! They almost look like little easter eggs! I have never made a pastry before that you stuff! I must try this one!
That’s great! I’m always looking for new stuff to make to celebrate Mardi Gras! I’ll give these a try!
Yum these look amazing! I love King Cake so will be giving these a try!
Wow, these look fantastic! What a great way to celebrate Mardi Gras!
This would be a very special treat for us. I will keep these in mind for the next time we have company for dinner.
I love that you put all the pictures on this. Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine how it’s supposed to look. These look great!
These look great! I love anything with cream cheese or cream cheese icing.
These Looks So Good My Girls Will Love Trying These!! Thank You!!
They look delicious!
What a great idea! Love them!
Oh my goodness, I am drooling, you had me a cream cheese and lime! I’d love to give these a try.
Man, these look so delicious! I wish I didn’t have to make gluten free sweet treats!
YUM! These look delicious and perfect for mardi gras!
Ihave been looking for a good cream puff recipe. My grandmother has been asking for them
I love this recipe, I think my favorite part of it would be the filling. Anything with heavy cream in it can’t be bad!
I would love to make these!! So yum!
I’ve never had King cake, but your twist on it sounds amazing! I need one of those pastry guns in my kitchen :)
These look cute even without celebrating which we don’t!
This was new to me:) But they look tasty.
These sound and look so good! Very Tasty.
My son is studying to be a chef and he has 2 more years of academics to go before he earns his degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. I collect recipes I see online for him and your cream puff recipe would be a good project for his next cooking lab. Thank you so much for sharing!
those looks good, my kids would like these!
Oh my these look really delicious. The steps look very easy as well, I would love to try and bake these.
Tasty, colorful, and fun – perfect for all kinds of festivities! Thanks for sharing!
I love King Cakes and Mardi Gras! It is such a fun time with great food! Pinned – I think I will make these to take to work on Fat Tuesday.
Perfect way to celebrate Mardi Gras. I’ve never had a cream puff before, but man oh man, I want one now!
These looks so good. I love cream puffs. Perfect for Mardi Gras.
Oh these look and sound so yummy. I will have to pin this to try with my kids! Thanks for the recipe idea.