Saturday, February 2, 2013

Mardi Gras King Cake




One of my favorite things about New Orleans and Mardi Gras is King Cake. King Cake is a coffee cake type confection traditionally decorted in the colors of Mardi Gras - yellow, green and purple. The "King" cake is named after the three kings (The Magi) that came to the baby Jesus at his birth.

In many places in the world, a king cake is eaten at Christmastime or Epiphany (January 6th), but in the U.S. is typically reserved for Mardi Gras.


The cake often has a token inside said to represent Jesus. In some places it is a golden bean, but most of the time in New Orleans and other parts of the US, it's a plastic baby. I've only had king cake from New Orleans.


Legend has it that whoever finds the plastic baby in the King Cake throws the Mardi Gras party the following year or is King or Queen of the party, depending on which tradition is recognized. 


Here's a recipe to make your own Mardi Gras King Cake, but you can also order them here from Dianne's (my friend Max, born and raised in NOLA, says these are the best.)


King Cake flavored items have taken off.

There is King Cake Ice Cream from Blue Bell, which you can order online but it costs more than $100 for four tubs of ice cream (ice cream shipping is complicated and expensive.) This is really good ice cream.






King Cake Vodka:

And even King Cake coffee:




And everyone's favorite, King Cake babyware...



You can get one of these at Fleurty Girl. I just love this store.

King Cake is an important part of any Mardi Gras celebration.




2 comments:

  1. Is there King Cake vodka in the King Cake? Now that would be interesting.

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  2. @Kim - There isn't any King Cake vodka in the cake usually, but you can drink it while you are eating the King Cake or by itself. It's also very good with cranberry.

    ReplyDelete