With delicious pecans and cream cheese swirled with yellow cake, this King Cake Earthquake Cake is a delicious new way to enjoy the traditional Mardi Gras dessert that we all know! My favorite thing about making earthquake cakes is that they’re SO easy to put together and turn out perfectly every time! This would be great to make for dessert on Fat Tuesday or for a Mardi Gras party!
How to Make a King Cake Earthquake
It’s so easy to make this king cake recipe for Fat Tuesday! You only need a handful of simple ingredients, and of course some colored sugar in the traditional Mardi Gras colors: purple, gold, and green!
Ingredients for a Mardi Gras Earthquake Cake
Chopped pecans
Yellow cake mix – You can use any brand of cake mix, but be sure to adjust the water, eggs and vegetable oil for the brand you choose.
Water
Eggs – The standard large size
Vegetable Oil
Cream cheese – Be sure the cream cheese you use is pre-softened and room temperature. It mixes much better that way!
Salted Butter – If you don’t have salted butter on hand, you could use unsalted and just ad 1/2 tsp of salt.
Powdered sugar
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Milk – Use 2% or whole milk. I find that skim milk is too watery in recipes!
Colored Sugar – You’ll want the traditional Mardi Gras colors: purple, green and yellow.
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle all of the pecans in the bottom of the pan. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Lastly, pour the King Cake Earthquake Cake batter over the pecans.
In a large bowl, mix together softened cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer. Add in 2½ cups powdered sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt and continue to blend until smooth.
Spoon cream cheese mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the edges of the King Cake Earthquake Cake begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Remove from oven and cool completely While cooling, whisk together 1½ cups powdered sugar and 3 to 4 Tbsp milk. Pour glaze over cooled cake. Sprinkle with yellow, purple and green sugar right after pouring so it sticks well to the glaze. The sugar makes the King Cake Earthquake Cake look so festive!
I hope you love this delicious King Cake recipe for Mardi Gras! Let me know if you try it!
More 9×13 Dessert Recipes
Why is it called Earthquake Cake?
Earthquake cake is called that because the top of it is cracked like an earthquake! Before baking, the cream cheese mixture that is spooned on top sinks to the bottom and creates fissures in the top of the cake.
King Cake Earthquake Cake
This King Cake Earthquake cake has layers of delicious pecans, cinnamon, cream cheese, and traditional yellow cake! With traditional Mardi Gras colors on top, this dessert recipe is perfect for any party!
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 box yellow cake mix, PLUS ingredients to make cake
- 1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar, divided
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 Tbsp milk
- yellow, purple and green sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle all of the pecans in the bottom of the pan. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Pour over pecans.
- In a large bowl, mix together softened cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer. Add in 2½ cups powdered sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt and continue to blend until smooth.
- Spoon cream cheese mixture over cake batter and bake for 38-40 minutes or until the edges of the cake begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Remove from oven and cool completely
While cooling, whisk together 1½ cups powdered sugar and 3 to 4 Tbsp milk.
Pour glaze over cooled cake. Sprinkle with yellow, purple and green sugar right after pouring so it sticks well to the glaze.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 472Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 404mgCarbohydrates: 78gFiber: 2gSugar: 58gProtein: 3g
