Mardi Gras King Cake Cupcakes

It is Mardi Gras season in Louisiana! This is a favorite time of year for our family, and we love when visits to the US coincide with Mardi Gras parades! We are SO sad the parades are cancelled this year, but that hasn't dampened the spirit I'm seeing around town. A dreary, grey Thursday had me in the kitchen messing around with a few recipes for these cupcakes. This was the family favorite of the taste tests, so I wanted to document it here in order to not forget what I did! Ha! Enjoy! Laissez le bon temps rouler! 

Mardi Gras King Cake Cupcakes 

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 egg whites

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

1/2 cup whole milk

Cinnamon Swirl

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 1/2-5 cups powdered sugar

Bring all cake ingredients to room temperature! Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Make sure to fluff your flour and gently fill your measuring cup, scraping the excess off the top. In a separate small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon for the cinnamon swirl. Set aside.

 In a large bowl, beat together softened butter and sugar. Add vanilla and the egg whites, one at a time, completely blending after each one. Incorporate half the flour mixture. Blend in the milk and yogurt or sour cream. Finally add the remaining dry flour mixture. 

Put 16-18 paper liners in muffin tins. Using a Tablespoon or a small cookie scoop, place one spoon into each liner. Top with about 1/4 tsp cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat. Finish with a third spoon of the batter on top. Do not fill more than 2/3s full. Bake at 350F (180C) for 18-20 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick to see if it comes out mostly clean. It may have a crumb or two and that's ok! Remove cupcakes to a cooling rack. 

While cupcakes are cooling, make the cream cheese frosting. Beat together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Add powdered sugar a cup at a time until it reaches a texture that can be piped on to the cupcakes. 

Once cupcakes are cool, pipe on the frosting using a large decorating tip and bag. Sprinkle with purple, green, and gold sugar or drizzle with those same colors of icing glaze (see below). Enjoy! 

For the colored icing glazes, I mixed about 1/2 cup powdered sugar with a very small amount of milk and food color to get a fairly thick consistency I could drizzle or pipe on using a small bag with the corner barely nipped off! 

If you can't buy colored decorating sugar, you can make your own!