Breakfast

Mardi Gras Monkey Bread

This delicious Monkey bread is decked out with Mardi Gras colored sprinkles and is simple to make using refrigerated biscuits

  • Serves 12
  • Prep 15 minutes
  • Cook 45 minutes
  • Total 1 hour

refrigerated biscuits

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Mardi Gras Monkey Bread

A traditional King Cake is a twisted ring of cake, usually made from a yeasted dough and flavored with cinnamon, with a sugary icing on top. A small plastic baby, representing baby Jesus, is baked inside the cake. Whoever gets the piece of cake with the baby, is supposed to provide the cake for the next get together.

Monkey Bread Made With Biscuits

King Cake is typically not very sweet, but it’s drizzled with a very sweet icing. Sometimes I think it tastes like bread with liquid sugar on it. But not a monkey bread kind of bread. There’s almost no bread better than a Monkey Bread. Especially this one. Maybe that’s because this Monkey Bread is made with biscuits. And we southerners know biscuits beat bread any day :). Mardi Gras Monkey Bread is made with refrigerated biscuits, making it super easy to put together. Each biscuit is cut in 4 pieces and rolled in a cinnamon, pecan, sugar mixture.

Monkey Bread before glaze has been put on.

The whole thing is drizzled in lots of butter and more sugar before it is baked. You will feel like it is swimming in this butter/sugar mixture, but the biscuits really do soak it up as it cooks. Then if that isn’t enough, a thick, creamy icing is spread on top and the Monkey Bread is finished off with some purple, green, and gold sprinkles. If you are a sugar love like me, you will want to just eat the top portion of the cake which not only gets all the icing love, but the butter love too, since it was the bottom in the Bundt pan.

Make your next Mardi Gras celebration special with this super easy and delicious Mardi Gras Monkey Bread! Leftovers are great for breakfast with a cup of coffee! Note: You could easily up the fun and add a plastic baby to this Monkey Bread. Just stick one in when the monkey bread is finished baking. You can buy Plastic King Cake Babies here.

Close-up of Mardi Gras Monkey Bread.

Variations and Subsitutions

  • You can use 2 large cans of Grands biscuits instead of 4 smaller cans of regular biscuits.
  • Leave the nuts or or use walnuts in place of pecans.
  • Add a few tablespoons of bourbon to the butter mixture.
  • Make a cream cheese glaze.

How To Store

Wrap well and store at room temperature for 1 to 2 days or in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

Mardi Gras Monkey Bread with a big piece cut away.

More Mardi Gras Recipes

Watch the short video below to see how easy this recipe is to make.

Recipe Source: adapted from Babble.com

Originally posted on January 6, 2014.

Hebeli is an amazon.com affiliate.

Recipe

Mardi Gras Monkey Bread

This delicious Monkey bread is decked out with Mardi Gras colored sprinkles and is simple to make using refrigerated biscuits.

  • Serves 12
  • Prep 15 minutes
  • Cook 45 minutes
  • Total 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 4 small tubes refrigerated Homestyle Biscuits, (not the Grands)
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar, (separated)
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup evaporated milk
  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • gold, purple and green sprinkles

Instructions

  1. 1

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  2. 2

    Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.

  3. 3

    In a medium bowl, combine 3/4 cup sugar, pecan pieces, and cinnamon. Roll each biscuit piece in sugar mixture and then place in a Bundt pan. You should use most of the sugar mixture up, but it's ok to have some left over. You can sprinkle it on top of the biscuit pieces once you have them all added to the pan.

  4. 4

    In a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, evaporated milk, and butter. Heat stirring occasionally, until butter melts. Pour over biscuit pieces.

  5. 5

    Bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes and then invert onto a cake stand or large plate.

  6. 6

    For Icing, whisk together powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Spread on top of Monkey Bread.

Notes

Instead of using 4 small cans of regular biscuits, you can use 2 16.3-ounce cans of Grands Biscuits. Nutritional info is provided as an estimate only and will vary based on brands or products used. Not to be used for specific dietary needs.

Equipment

  • Bundt Pan

Nutrition

  • Calories645 kcal
  • Carbohydrates92 g
  • Protein6 g
  • Fat30 g
  • Saturated Fat11 g
  • Polyunsaturated Fat6 g
  • Monounsaturated Fat11 g
  • Trans Fat0.5 g
  • Cholesterol40 mg
  • Sodium813 mg
  • Potassium221 mg
  • Fiber2 g
  • Sugar57 g
  • Vitamin A469 IU
  • Vitamin C0.2 mg
  • Calcium69 mg
  • Iron3 mg

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