King Cake Cupcakes

Source - http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/10660

Cupcakes inspired by the Mardi Gras favorite: sweet pastry dough filled with cream cheese and cinnamon.

Ingredients

For the dough:

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar, divided

1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) yeast

1 egg

1 egg yolk

4 Tbsp butter, melted

3 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting work surface

1 tsp salt

Oil or cooking spray, for coating bowl

For the cream cheese filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used reduced-fat)

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 rounded tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp melted butter

For the glaze:

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

3-4 tsp water

Decorating sugar in yellow, purple and green

Instructions

Add water and 1 Tbsp sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast over top and let stand for 10 minutes. (If your yeast doesn’t get puffy, don’t keep going - buy new yeast.)

Add melted butter, egg, egg yolk, remaining sugar, 3 cups flour, and salt, and then turn the mixer to low.

Add only enough extra flour to get the dough to clean the sides of the bowl but not come completely off the bottom - it should be only slightly sticky when you touch it.

Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled (45 minutes-1 hour in my 100-degree oven). While dough is rising, make the filling.

Place filling ingredients into the mixer bowl (minus the melted butter) and mix on medium-high until completely smooth, 1-2 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 and line 2 cupcake pans with 18 liners.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times.

Stretch to a rectangle about 18x12 and brush with 2 Tbsp melted butter, leaving the top 1-inch dry.

Spread cream cheese filling over the dough evenly, leaving the top 1-inch dry.

Starting with the long side of the dough closest to you, roll jelly-roll style, pinching the last inch of the dough onto the roll and placing seam-down on the counter.

Lightly pat/pull so that the roll is even diameter down its length.

Trim the scraggly ends and then slice into rounds that are ~3/4-1 inch thick. Take care that they don’t get any thicker than that, the rolls should sit level/just below level of the cupcake pan. Any taller and they’ll grow too tall in the oven and fall over.

Transfer the rounds to the cupcake pans and let rest while the oven preheats to 375.

Bake ~25 minutes, until lightly browned and nicely domed.

Remove from the oven and let cool ~10 minutes in the pan.

Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, whisk powdered sugar, vanilla, and gradually add the water until you get a smooth and thick but scoopable glaze.

Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the glaze (or spoon over top) and then sprinkle with decorating sugar.

Notes

Yields: 18 cupcakes

Adapted from Erica’s King Cake

Estimated time: 2 hours