King Cake Bites

Mr. Devilish Dish had some gumbo a while back that he really enjoyed.  When it came time to create the menu for our Super Bowl party, he suggested gumbo.  I really liked the idea of Cajun-themed meal since Mardi Gras is currently going on and it's Fat Tuesday!  King Cake is traditionally associated with the Pre-Lenten or Mardi Gras/Carnival season.  Many years ago the cake started out as a French-style bread with sugar on top.  It's evolved into many variations including a puff pastry filled sweet filling topped with colorful sugar.  The colors on the king cake symbolize justice (purple), faith (green), and power (gold).  They honor the Three Kings who visited the Christ Child the 12th day after Christmas.  After researching the history of King Cake I started looking for  recipes.  Normally I love to cook the long, complicated version of things but in this case I needed something simple and party perfect. This quick version isn’t the real thing, but these little bites are so tasty and they are similar to my Sopapilla Cheesecake recipe, and using crescent roll dough speeds up the process.  These were so good and fun, I can promise you I'll be making them again and I will not be waiting until Fat Tuesday to do so. 

King Cake Bites

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cans refrigerated crescent roll dough

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

purple/green/gold sugars

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  With a mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice until smooth.  Place some parchment paper on a cutting board.  Open the cans of crescent dough and separate into 8 rectangles.  Press the perforated seams together to seal the dough, making a solid rectangle shape.   Sprinkle each rectangle with some of the cinnamon.  Spread the cream cheese mixture down the center of each rectangle.  Fold each rectangle lengthwise into thirds to seal in the filling.  Cut each of these into 4 squares.  Place seam-side down on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Bake approximately 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool slightly.  Combine the powdered sugar and milk to make a thin glaze.  Spread onto each baked square and sprinkle with colored sugars.

Prep Time:  Approximately 15 minutes     Cook Time:  Approximately 15 minutes