My parents recently lived in Louisiana for about 6 years, and I think I visited them for four or five of those Mardi Gras. Even though they have moved back to Missouri, my stepdad still visits Louisiana for work often. During one of his trips during Mardi Gras, I asked him to bring me back a king cake. He brought me back three of them! Way more than i could eat. So my friends and I ate one, froze one, and I turned the third into a king cake bread pudding. This bread pudding allows you to give new life to a week-old, nearly stale king cake.
The king cake flavors I normally purchase are the cinnamon and/or cream cheese flavors and sometimes the strawberry. The one I used for this king cake bread pudding recipe was the cream cheese flavor. I often enjoy little pockets of cream cheese in my homemade bread puddings, so this seemed like the perfect type of king cake to use! It also added an extra layer of creaminess to the bread pudding.
The cinnamon or strawberry would have also been delicious though. Another flavor that would work well is a chocolate or Nutella one! How delicious!
Normally I would add sugar to a bread pudding recipe, but since the king cake had sweet icing, and I added sweet white chocolate chips. With these sweet components included, I left out the sugar. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. But, if you love sweets, you can always add a 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar or so. Brown sugar would be particularly good if you were using the cinnamon king cake. Almost like a cinnamon roll vibe.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the recipe below and have fun with you own interpretations at saving your dry king cake! Have a happy Mardi Gras and laissez les bon temps rouler!!
King Cake Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 king cake cut in 1 in cubes
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups half & half
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a casserole dish (9×13 or 9in round).
- Cut the king cake into 1 in cubes.
- Whisk together the eggs, milk, half & half, vanilla, and cinnamon.
- Add the cubed king cake to the egg and milk mixture. Let the mixture sit for about 20 minutes so that the cake can soak up the mixture and get a bit soggy.
- Fold the white chocolate chips into the soggy bread.
- Add everything to the prepared casserole dish, and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the custard is just set and no longer jiggles when shaken.
