Make your Mardi Gras celebration just a tad sweeter with these simple and quick lemony Mardi Gras mini cakes. A dash of fresh lemon zest and some yellow cake mix is your easy secret weapon for these colorful glazed and sprinkled little mini cakes! They make bright and tasty festive desserts you can whip up with simple ingredients to sweeten up your celebration.
An easy glaze and lots of festive confetti-style dot sprinkles make cool brightly-colored toppings for these simple mini cakes that will bring the fun to your Fat Tuesday table!
Let’s not be mistaken now… These little mini cakes aren’t quite supposed to mimic a traditional King Cake by any means. They are, however, perfect for those of you looking to whip up a quick treat at home to celebrate Mardi Gras! It will add that simple little extra tasty touch to your spread! These are perfect paired with a little hot coffee or your favorite tea.
What Do I Need To Make Mardi Gras Mini Cakes?
To start, you’ll wanna have a few things handy:
- An easy box of yellow cake mix handy – which we’ll brighten up with lots of fresh lemon zest.
- You’ll also need the ingredients you’ll use to prepare the box mix according to package directions. Usually it will involve water (which I like to replace with milk), butter or vegetable oil, and eggs.
- You’ll also need a fresh lemon so you can collect the zest to brighten up our yellow cake batter.
- Confectioners sugar and tablespoons of water. Also grab any extras you might want to flavor up your glaze such as vanilla or light/white rum.
I would suggest white rum or light rum. It adds a delicious extra little something to the cakes without changing the bright white base color of the glaze. If you plan on adding a little food coloring to the glaze later on down the line, the colors will look clean and true when you add the dye.
Related: Emerald Green Jello Layer No Bake Cheesecake Squares
To make the cakes, simply prepare the box of yellow cake mix according to package directions. I usually use a box of Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix. I’ll add the zest of a full lemon, stir in to combine, and that’s it! I’ll then pour the cake batter into greased little mini cake molds.
I used a spray to grease the molds to be sure I didn’t miss a spot. I used silicone mini cake molds that I filled only about halfway each. This is to help the batter rise in the oven within the mold without overflowing.
Bake the batter inside the molds according to package directions and then remove from the oven when finished baking. I like to test mine with a toothpick really quick to check for doneness and take out when done baking. Let them cool for a little while before unmolding. About 30 minutes or so. You can always speed this up by placing them in the fridge for a few minutes too.
Once the cakes are completely cool, we’ll dress them up with a little glaze and sprinkles in festive Mardi Gras fashion!
To make the glaze, combine confectioners’ sugar, a splash of white rum, if desired. Add a pinch of salt as desired, and 2 to 4 tbsp of water added in drip drops at a time. Whisk to combine and adjust by adding either more water if too thick or more confectioners’ sugar if too runny/thin.
Next, divide your glaze into 3 small little bowls and dye the amounts in each bowl with food coloring. Dye the glaze in the colors yellow, green, and purple.
Once more, if the glaze is too runny after adding the dye, adjust by adding in tiny sprinkles of confectioners’ sugar to adjust. I used Watkins natural food dye which created these soft and light colors that were so fun to work with.
This makes about 15 – 20 mini cakes depending on the size of your molds / muffin tin.
Use glaze or whipped cream…
Optionally, you could also top these with whipped topping/whipped cream and add your Mardi Gras colored sprinkles over that! Purple, Yellow, and Green are a must for that extra festive look… Gold in place of yellow is even better! I actually added some gold sanding sugar over the top of mine which added a cool look!
The quick lemony Mardi Gras mini cakes are quite spongy, so, depending on how thick you make your glaze, they will absorb some, and some will drip and run down the sides. It will all create a colorful palette of Mardi Gras colors on your plate.
sprinkle & serve…
Generously sprinkle the top of each colorful glazed mini cake with sprinkles and dig in! It’s an easy and simple way to celebrate Mardi Gras with these fun semi-homemade mini cakes that pack sweet lemony taste in every bite!
Quick Lemony Mardi Gras Mini Cakes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix - Prepared According To Package directions – I used Betty Crocker Super Moist Cake Mix
- 1 Lemon The Fresh Zest of 1 Lemon
- 1½ Cup Confectioners' Sugar
- 2 to 4 tbsp Water - as needed to reach desired consistency
- 1 tsp Vanilla – Optional
- 1 tsp White Rum – Optional - or more if desired, added to taste
- pinch Salt to taste
- Yellow or Gold Dot Sprinkles
- Purple Dot Sprinkles
- Green Dot Sprinkles
- Natural/Organic Food Coloring - in Yellow/Purple/Green
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven according to the package directions for your yellow cake mix. For mine, I pre-heated the oven to 350. Grease either your silicone mold or your muffin tin thoroughly so batter does not stick. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine ingredients according to package directions for your yellow cake mix. I like to replace water with milk for my Super Moist Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix. Either water or milk works fine.
- Pour prepared batter into your molds only to the halfway point. Continue until all the batter is finished. Bake accordingly, let cool, and then unmold.
- Prepare the glaze by combining water and confectioners' sugar along with rum or vanilla, if using plus salt. Divide the glaze evenly into 3 bowls and dye one with yellow coloring, another with purple coloring, and another with green coloring. Stir to combine until evenly colored.
- Unmold cooled cakes and drizzle with either the colored glazes you prepared or whipped cream/whipped topping and finish with sprinkles in matching Mardi Gras colors. Serve immediately.