King Cake Smoothie

This spiked king cake flavored smoothie is a tasty, nourishing, and filling concoction that'll keep you marching the parade route all day long

It's that time of year! Mardi Gras is upon us, which means king cake everywhere.

You can seriously get king cake-flavored anything: coffee, vodka, muffins, smoothies.

Last Thursday, I went to a King Cake Party where everyone brought a king cake. We had 12 king cakes and tasted them all to decide which one was our favorite, which had the best icing, which one was the prettiest, etc.

That means that I had to try 12 different cakes. Ok so "had to" is obviously an exaggeration, but in the name of cake and Mardi Gras and because I love that kind of thing, I had to.

We're eating all the king cakes 💜💚💛

A photo posted by Meme (@memeinge) on Jan 28, 2016 at 6:46pm PST

I don't typically eat a bunch of cake on a daily basis. I don't intentionally avoid sweets, but I just don't have them very often. When I want them, I have them. When I'm not thinking about them, I don't actively seek them out, and I rarely have cravings for sweet things.

This all means that my body isn't used to a lot of sugar at one time. So yeah, I occasionally eat mounds of cookie dough while baking cookies, but that's important for quality control.

Y'all, I was hungover the next day. We're talking headache, fatigue, a little bit of nausea -- all from king cake (no adult beverages were involved in this hangover)! And by king cake I mean too much king cake.

I'd like you to know that I had one small bite of each piece, so I could accurately take notes. There was one cake I accidentally tried twice which was disappointing because I found it too cinnamon-y flavored. And then I needed to test two cakes again to decide which one I liked better.

All this being said, I never want to eat king cake again.

That is until Sunday when I went to the King Cake Festival. Well, I went to the fitness challenge before the festival because barre3 New Orleans participated in the fitness challenge. After the fitness challenge, Smoothie King had King Cake Smoothie samples.

I felt like I could tolerate a smoothie since it wasn't cake. I'm glad I did because they were tasty, so I decided to recreate it myself!

I added some spinach because they don't sell carrot sticks next to the cotton candy and blow-up tubas (i.e. I need a few veggies in my Mardi Gras diet)

And since it is Mardi Gras, I spiked my smoothie because duh all Mardi Gras smoothies should be spiked. If you're not interested in adding rum and/or amaretto, just omit it and add some extra almond milk if necessary.

Other than that, this smoothie is a tasty, nourishing, and filling concoction that'll keep you marching the parade route all day long.

King Cake Smoothie

This spiked king cake flavored smoothie is a tasty, nourishing, and filling concoction that'll keep you marching the parade route all day long

Print Rate

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1

Author: Meme

Ingredients

• ▢ 1/2 banana frozen
• ▢ 2 cups fresh spinach
• ▢ 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or pecan milk
• ▢ 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt or other plain yogurt
• ▢ 1 TBSP maple syrup optional
• ▢ 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• ▢ 1/4 tsp almond extract
• ▢ dash of salt
• ▢ 2 TBSP amaretto optional
• ▢ 2 TBSP rum optional

Instructions

• Add frozen banana, spinach, almond milk, greek yogurt, maple syrup (if using), vanilla extract, cinnamon, almond extract, and dash of salt to a blender. Blend until completely smooth.
• Pour into a glass and stir in amaretto and rum if using.

Notes

*Nutrition facts calculated with all the ingredients (including the alcohol).

*You can omit the maple syrup if desired; it'll just not be as sweet. 

*Use dairy free yogurt for a dairy free, vegan smoothie.

Did you try this recipe?Be sure to leave a comment & recipe rating below. Bonus points for tagging @memeinge & #livingwellkitchen on Instagram! THANK YOU! xo

If you're wondering which king cake won...

Best Presentation: Cake Cafe

Best Icing: Caluda's

Best Filling: Cake Cafe

Most Unique: Willa Jean

People's Choice: McKenzie's

Note -- my favorites were the Intercontinental Hotel and Caluda's

Meme