This delicious Monkey bread is decked out with Mardi Gras colored sprinkles and is simple to make using refrigerated biscuits. Covered in a thick icing, this monkey bread is so gooey and good.
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.
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.
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.
More Mardi Gras Recipes
- Cinnamon-Pecan King Cake
- King Cake Cracker Candy
- Homemade Beignets
- Mardi Gras Pound Cake
- Chocolate Praline Cake
Watch the short video below to see how easy this recipe is to make.
Mardi Gras Monkey Bread
Equipment
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
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.
- 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.
- In a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, evaporated milk, and butter. Heat stirring occasionally, until butter melts. Pour over biscuit pieces.
- Bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes and then invert onto a cake stand or large plate.
- For Icing, whisk together powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Spread on top of Monkey Bread.
Notes
Nutrition
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Recipe Source: adapted from Babble.com
Originally posted on January 6, 2014.
Spicy Southern Kitchen is an amazon.com affiliate.
Tried this recipe today.. the sauce bubbled over and dripped onto the bottom of my oven. My oven went up in flames. I promise I’m not it lying but trust me I wish I was.
I made this today and I used 3 cans and it bubbled over a little so 4 would have been way too much. But it still came out and is delicious
I also love my King Cake with the cream cheese! Could I put a slice of cream cheese in the middle of each biscuit before rolling it into the cinnamon and sugar mixture and baking? Have you tried this before? Would the cream cheese cook into the biscuit?
Hmmm. Once you cut the biscuits into four pieces each, you have a lot of biscuit pieces and they are pretty small. It would be very time consuming to put a piece of cream cheese in the middle of each one and it would have to be a small piece of cream cheese. I would maybe cut each biscuit piece in thirds and be sure to get the dough completely sealed around the cream cheese. Otherwise it will probably ooze out and most of it end up at the bottom of the pan. But that might still taste good. No way to find out but try 🙂 Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
Paula Deen had a recipe for monkey bread with cream cheese. It’s called gorilla bread
Ok- what did I do wrong? I followed every step and when I got the bread out of the oven, let it sit a few minutes, turned it over to get it out of the pan… All the sauce I poured on before baking was oozing all over the top (the top after turning it upside down to get it out of the pan). Is that how it is suppose to be?
A fair amount will ooze down and the part that was in the bottom should be really soaked with the liquid and very soft and buttery while the part that was the top will be on the drier side.
We never do much for Mardi Gras. This looks like a really fun tradition to start. Love the sprinkles on top as well!
I’ve seen King bread but never had it…but this monkey break version seems more my style. I’m with you on loving sugary things 😉
I have never had king cake and I have always wanted to try some! Now that you have explained it’s just bread and sugar I am not going to pay that much attention to the hype. The carnival season has just started so this is lovely recipe! Looks like a King Cake Monkey bread I love it!!!
This is so adorable!! And I totally hear ya on only wanting the top of the cake!! YUM! I hope that you have a great rest of your week!!
I’ve never had King Cake but this monkey bread sure sounds amazing! I mean you can’t go wrong with biscuits …. haha And with that glaze… so good!
Nope… you definitely can’t go wrong with biscuits! Have a great week Ashley!
My husband proposed to me in New Orleans, near french quarter so it holds a special place in my heart. We had a blast eating and sight seeing. I absolutely love it! This bread totally reminds me of mardi gras! I love how colorful and festive it is. Have a great week Christin. 🙂
My husband proposed to me in New Orleans too! Only it was in my run down old apartment. He did take me to Arnaud’s afterward though 🙂
Drool! I love monkey bread.
Such a festive one! I’ve never made monkey bread but I wanna try it finally. Great recipe. And it’s so colorful 🙂
You’re making me miss Louisiana with recipes like these! I love me some biscuits, but never thought to make monkey bread out of it! Looks like I’ll have to have my own Mardi Gras party in SF!
You should definitely have your own Mardi Gras Party in SF. How much fun would that be!
Someone always brings in a store bought king cake to work, but I don’t ever see the appeal. To me, it is always dry and pretty tasteless. But if this monkey bread were in front of me, I wouldn’t be able to stop. The perfect way to celebrate mardi gras!
I agree Ashley! King Cake can be pretty dry. This Monkey Bread has all the wonderful visual appeal of a King Cake, but is gooey and buttery! Have a great week 🙂
The king cake sounds like a great tradition, but when you can have a monkey bread cake, it doesn’t sound worth it! Your cake looks so delicious and fun!
This looks so tasty! Love the way you’ve decorated it- so colourful and bright! 🙂
I’ve never been to New Orleans but every time I see that festive icing/sprinkle combination, you can’t help but think Mardi Gras. : ) This type of monkey bread sounds do-able and you are right – who doesn’t love biscuits!
You are speaking my language – biscuits beat bread anyday!
This Mardi gras monkey bread is a beauty – so well done!
My jaw is on the floor, I tell you.
The icing, the butter mixture, the biscuits, the sprinkles… how did you get to fit so much deliciousness in a dessert? This looks like the most scrumptious thing ever, oh wow.
Have a nice day Christin! x
Great recipe Christin! Love how pretty your monkey bread looks with all the icing and sprinkles – so festive and perfect for Mardi Gras:)
Monkey Bread is always so pretty and yummy! 🙂
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