This Gluten Free King Cake recipe is buttery and soft with a praline pecan cream cheese filling and a sprinkling of traditional Mardi Gras colors. It's easy to put together and is the perfect thing to celebrate Fat Tuesday!
UPDATE: This gluten free king cake recipe has been updated from my previous recipe posted on February 20, 2023 with a new filling recipe, new method for filling, new method for shaping, and all new pictures.
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I've never experienced Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but I have had a king cake and they are delicious! I used to work with someone who was from New Orleans (or NOLA as the locals there call it). She kept talking about how she missed king cakes and finally brought one in for one of our luncheons. It was so good!
What is King Cake?
King cake is a Mardi Gras traditional "cake" that isn't really a cake at all. It's more of a bread or pastry, a lot like a giant cinnamon roll. It represents when the Three Wise Men, or "kings," brought gifts to baby Jesus on Epiphany. A tiny plastic baby is usually embedded in the cake, which represents the baby Jesus. I chose to leave out the tiny baby, but everything else about this gluten free King cake is spot on and I'm sure you'll love it!
King cake is typically served at the beginning of January through Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.
King cakes are meant to be very indulgent "cakes" full of sugar and richness. They're usually adorned with the colors of Mardi Gras (green, gold, and purple), which represent faith, power, and justice. Everyone has their own idea as to what a traditional King cake is. There are several variations that I found on the internet. One with a simple cinnamon sugar filling, another with a strawberry cream cheese filling. I think they can be as indulgent as you want them to be! In this recipe, I give you two options for both the filling and the way the king cake is shaped and baked.
Here's What You Need for Praline Pecan Cream Cheese King Cake
- Gluten free sweet dough - the champion of champs, this gluten free sweet dough can make over 30 (yes, 30! and counting!) recipes.
- Cream cheese filling- this particular recipe calls for cream cheese in the filling. There are so many different ways to make a king cake, so check out the variations below for more.
- Praline pecan filling - this is what makes that praline flavor that NOLA is famous for.
Steps For Making Braided King Cake
Make the dough and refrigerate it overnight.
Make the praline pecan filling and cool completely.
Combine the filling ingredients for cream cheese filling in a small bowl until smooth. If desired, fill a decorating bag or large ziptop bag with the cream cheese filling and set aside.
Knead the dough until smooth and roll it out into a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Sprinkle a line of the praline pecan filling in a strip along the long side of the rectangle, leaving about a one-inch border untouched.
Pipe or dollop the cream cheese filling on top of the pecan filling in a long strip.
Fold edge of dough over the filling and continue to roll it all the way up, just like you would a cinnamon roll. Pinch the seam to seal completely.
Begin slowly elongating the dough roll by gently squeezing it and stretching it until it's long enough to make a large oval shape.
Conjoin the two ends to make the oval shape, place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.
Mix together icing ingredients in small bowl and set aside.
Spread icing on warm king cake.
Sprinkle with purple, green, and gold colored sugar, slice, and serve.
Variations
Here are some ideas for flavor variations in your own King cake:
- Use the filling from my gluten free cinnamon rolls and make essentially one giant cinnamon roll ring.
- Knead about ½ cup of raisins into the dough before rolling it out. Use the same filling as my cinnamon rolls and roll into a giant cinnamon roll ring.
- To make a strawberry filling, spread strawberry jam over dough before rolling.
- For a strawberry cream cheese filling, spread cream cheese mixture over dough and then carefully add strawberry jam over top before rolling up.
More Mardi Gras Recipes
Even if you can't make it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, you can still make an authentic gluten free king cake recipe to celebrate the tradition!!
Gluten Free King Cake
Ingredients
Gluten Free Sweet Dough
- 180 ml whole milk (a dairy free milk may be substituted, but hasn't been tested)
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 5 grams whole psyllium husks
- 12 grams instant yeast
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 85 grams butter, very soft or melted
- 245 grams Kim's gluten free bread flour blend
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Praline Pecan Filling
- 28 grams butter (2 tbsp)
- 60 grams maple syrup (4 tbsp)
- 100 grams brown sugar (½ cup)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 125 grams chopped pecans (1 cup)
Cream Cheese Filling
- 226 grams cream cheese (8 oz)
- 63 grams powdered sugar (½ cup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Icing
- 180 grams powdered sugar (1½ cups)
- 2-3 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- colored sanding sugar (purple, green, and gold)
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Put all of the dough ingredients in the order in which they appear in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix or knead on medium speed for 5 minutes. Cover and let proof until doubled in size. Refrigerate overnight.
Make the Pecan Praline Filling
- Add the butter to a skillet over medium heat and let melt. Add the rest of the ingredients for the praline filling and stir until the sugar is melted, approximately 2 minutes. Pour into a small bowl and let sit until cool. It will harden upon sitting and can be crumbled.
Make the Cream Cheese Filling
- Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl until smooth. If desired, fill a pastry bag with the filling and cut an opening of about one inch. Set aside.
Assemble
- Roll out the dough into a 9 by 12-inch, ½-inch thick rectangle. Sprinkle the pecan praline filling in a line about one inch from the top border of the dough (the long side). Pipe or dollop the cream cheese filling on top of the praline. Fold the dough over the filling and pinch to seal. Roll the rest of the dough like you would a cinnamon roll and pinch the seam to seal.
- Using your fingers, gently squeeze and stretch the dough cylinder until it is long enough to create a 8 to 9-inch oval shape. Open up one end and tuck the other end into it and seal those edges.
- Place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until nearly doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Bake the King Cake
- Bake the king cake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
Make the Glaze
- While the cake is baking, mix together all glaze ingredients, only pouring in a little of the milk at a time, until a thick paste forms. I would not suggest using a whisk if you are making your glaze thick (your whisk may break or the icing will clump up inside of it). Use a silicone spatula instead.
- When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately spoon the glaze over the warm cake and quickly sprinkle the colored sugars in a purple, green, and gold pattern on top of the glaze. Serve immediately or at room temperature.
- This king cake, while best eaten the day it is made, will keep very well covered at room temperature for up to 5 days. It remains soft, but you can also reheat it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.
Amber says
I’m planning to try a dairy free version of this for some friends. I’m from NOLA— and the only tip I would have and wonder if you have tried— is that a king cake is more of a braided bread— which also yields more filling layers verses just a big ring.
So I’ll try this recipe with a different technique to see how it works. I hope it comes out! I’ve been watching your videos to learn GF baking techniques.
I plan to make the dough and filling just like a cinnamon roll and spread all over, then divide in thirds, pinch together into three long rolls then braid it together and connect.
Kim says
I believe my former king cake was a braided one, but then I watched a video for Gambino's and they didn't braid theirs. Seeing that, I decided to go with just the ring as it was definitely easier than braiding gluten free dough. While it can be done, it's a lot easier to make the roll.
Rebecca K says
Help! What am I doing wrong? My dough won’t rise. I really want to try this!
Kim says
I'm not sure what your situation is, but first things first, have you used my flour blend recipe? Or substituted anything within it? There are 3 things I do to help dough rise:
1. Turn my oven on for a brief moment, just to make a warm environment, and then turn it off and place the dough in the oven.
2. Turn on my clothes dryer (yep, you read that right) for a few minutes to get nice and toasty and place the dough inside.
3. Use a warming mat, like this one: https://amzn.to/4hjUSRP This is a new purchase I made and it is a GAME CHANGER in gluten free bread baking!
Neil says
The recipe was delicious. The only problem I had was that with the amount of fillings there was no hope of making it a pretty ring. The pecans on the 12 inch long side of the dough were over an inch high, and the cream cheese on top of that. I was barely able to get the dough wrapped around the filling, there was no hope of shaping it after that, so I got a 6 inch wide slightly cresented log. My cross section cut looked more half bread half filling compared to the dainty amount in the photo. Maybe I just bit off too much with the cinnamon buns being the only other sweet dough thing I've made. Once frosted, cut up and on the plate no one was the wiser that it looked a wreck on the tray.
E says
Hey Kim!!! This recipe was AMAZING! The only problem was that it was so sticky but I got around that by flowering #1 (just a small amount though, since GF flour is not cheap), and #2, using a Pampered Chef rollable baking mat! It made it so easy to roll out, fill then tranfer to parchment paper and then to my pan! Everyone at my church thuroughly enjoyed this recipe and I will be sure to share! Love all of your recipes and your flour mix is the best!
Do you have a GF Oreo cookie recipe? If not I would love to see one soon!
Also, I was making this for the next day and could not let it sit in the fridge over night, instead I let it rise for 2 hours (First time) placed in the fridge for 10 min, rolled out/filled and let it sit for 1 more hour before baking, it worked AMAZINGLY and did not take nearly as long! Thanks so much!
Kim says
So glad you liked it! I can tell you that if you had left the dough in the fridge overnight, it would have so much easier to work with and roll it without it being too sticky. The refrigeration really helps with that.
I don't currently have an Oreo cookie recipe, but it is on my long list of things to try to make 🙂
Jen says
What a spectacular cake! I made the praline version, although I realized at the last minute I was out of pecans so I used hazelnuts instead and they were perfect. Transferring the dough to the bundt pan was a disaster despite my efforts. It totally fell apart into a soupy mess and I had to scoop it up in handfuls to get it into the pan. I was worried the whole thing would just come out a pile of goo, but it baked perfectly! The filling wasn't evenly distributed but it tasted amazing and we gobbled up the cake in less than 24 hours. (I was wondering if you've ever tried just spreading half the dough in the bottom of the pan, adding the filling, and then topping with the rest of the dough? Seems like it might work better than trying to roll this one.) I'll definitely be making this again next year!
Jen says
I had to come back and let you know I tried my suggestion about spreading batter instead of rolling it! I had made the full batch of dough, but since the king cake only needed half, I had dough left. I was going to make cinnamon rolls but I was just burnt out today and couldn't handle making the rolls, and the dough needed to get used. So I decided to spread the part of the dough in the bundt pan and top with Aldi's fried apples from a can, then spread more dough on top as best I could. (I did drain the apples first.) I was going to do the regular glaze but again, I just couldn't handle a simple task today, so I found a jar of caramel sauce in the pantry and drizzled that on top. It was perfection! In hindsight I do think it could have used a bit more fruit, and I wish I had sprinkled on some cinnamon sugar, but for virtually no effort it was amazing I think you could easily do this with other pie fillings or even fresh fruit. This is my new foolproof way of making a coffee cake-type thing from now on. THANK YOU!
Kim says
Oooooh, this sounds AMAZING!!!!!! I need to try that one of these days!! Thanks, Jen!
Kim says
Hi, Jen! When I first made this recipe, I didn't think of that, but if you watch my new video for this, you'll see that I kinda figured that out a little bit, haha! Unfortunately, my new video won't fit on my website, so if you want to see it, check it out on my youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddogJ4iMqgY&t=48s
Emily Baker says
Being from Louisiana and beyond missing King Cake during Mardi Gras season…, this is off the chart yummy!!! I have made this several times for me and my GF friends and it is always a hit! Ty for sharing this!!
Tesha Cutrer says
Absolutely delicious! When my daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, we had to give up so many delicious treats. I swear this king cake does not taste gluten free. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe. We are planning to make cinnamon rolls with the left over dough. I can't wait!!!
Kim says
Awe, yay!! So thrilled you enjoyed it 😍😍😍
Helen Harris says
I made this with a praline filling and it was so good. Le bon temps roulet! I love king cake! I ordered a GF cake from a bakery in Metairie few years ago. It cost a fortune to ship and wasn’t authentic at all. This recipe is as good as the real deal and my non GF husband agrees!
Kim says
Thanks so much, Helen 😍
Vickie S Meador says
This is a beautiful cake! You amaze me with your baking skills!
Kim says
Thank you do much, Vickie! You are too kind 😄