Why Buy a Supermarket King Cake When You Can Make This Giant King Cake Pop-Tart?

The parades may be called off this year, but the Mardi Gras spirit can never be canceled. Who would dare try?

Obviously, Mardi Gras season means different things for different folks. For some, it's all about designing an epic Mardi Gras costume, anticipating the parades where they'll debut this year's finely crafted plumage. Others are here for the sacred act of pouring onto the streets to share festivities/solo cups with old friends and potential friends alike. Conveniently for me, not being native to a city that goes all-out in celebrating, Mardi Gras mostly means king cake.

How I looked forward to the day in grade school when somebody's amazingly thoughtful parents would drop off a couple of king cakes, fresh from the Publix bakery, for our class to share after lunch. I so longed to find that nude plastic baby in my slice. Before understanding that it technically meant I was supposed to supply the cake next year, it seemed like such an incredible honor.

Roughly a decade later, I found myself in my first shoebox kitchen, attempting to make my first king cakes from-scratch to share with my campus magazine comrades at our weekly staff meeting. And you know what I learned? Making king cake from scratch is kind of a pain. Not to mention, mine weren't even as good as the ones from Publix.

I'd like to think that if I took another stab at it now, my homemade king cake would be substantially more impressive. Still, I have zero plans to mess with all that. I mean, it seems like something I should save for a year when people can actually come over and admire/eat it, right?

That's why, this year, my household will be enjoying this Giant King Cake Pop-Tart instead. Inspired by my nostalgic enthusiasm for both the iconic Mardi Gras confection and mass-produced brown sugar-cinnamon breakfast pastries, this supersized "Pop-Tart" offers a buttery, flakey, festively adorned cinnamon-sugar pastry experience with minimal effort.

Seriously, the most time-consuming aspect of this recipe was driving to Hobby Lobby to track down purple, gold, and green sanding sugars. (If you're feeling crafty, you can always make those yourself.)

Get the Recipe: Giant King Cake Pop-Tart

What really keeps this Mardi Gras mashup simple to prepare is the use of store-bought puff pastry, which is a readily available miracle you can purchase in the freezer section of your local grocery store. Now, I do understand that even these prepared sheets of laminated dough can be intimidating if you've never worked with them before, but let me assure you — there is nothing to fear.

Much like prepared pie dough, store-bought puff pastry is surprisingly durable and easy to manipulate. The key is letting the frozen sheets thaw out enough, but not to leave them hanging out at room temperature for too long. Straight from the freezer, it will take about 35-40 minutes for the two sheets to thaw — if they're easy to unfold, you're ready to party. Because you'll want to roll the pastry out into slightly larger rectangles, I suggest pinching the seams of each sheet (from where they were folded into thirds) together, so that the rolling process smooths the dough into a solid sheet with no risk of perforation.

From there, the only real trick is to be sure you flour your work surface, and I suggest lightly flouring the surface of the pastry as well, before rolling. You can technically bake your King Cake Pop Tart on a quarter sheet pan (I tried it out to make sure), however, I recommend using a half sheet pan (which measures 18-x13-inches) to avoid having to cram your tart into the pan. Beyond that, this giant pop-tart comes together quite easily — just don't forget the egg wash if you want to achieve that glossy, golden-brown aesthetic.

As for the plastic baby … I don't support the idea of baking the little guy into the center of your Pop-Tart, and it may be a little tricky to insert him afterwards. Instead, you can safely tuck an almond or pecan into the center of the tart as a plastic baby stand-in.