King Cake

The king cake of the New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition comes in a number of styles. The most simple, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green, and gold (the traditional Carnival colors) with food coloring. There are many variants, some with a filling, the most common being cream cheese and praline. Cajun cakes are traditionally,deep fat fried as a doughnut would be. They are topped with sugar granules in the official Carnival colors of purple, green and gold. The purple represents the passion of Christ, the green represents hope and the gold the rewards of leading a Christian life.

It has become customary in the New Orleans culture that whoever finds the trinket must provide the next one.

In the US Gulf Coast since the 1950s, the most common trinket has been a small plastic baby doll. Earlier ceramic baby dolls as trinkets are documented in New Orleans back to the 1930s. A king wearing a crown is the next most common trinket. Other figures have also been seen historically, and starting in the 1990s again became more common in the more expensive "gourmet" varieties. The common plastic baby of today is usually colored pink, brown, white or gold. Due to the choking hazard, some bakeries include the trinket separately from the pastry.

King Cakes are Louisiana tradition as are some other great foods

There are many varieties that are sold thru the Mardi Gras season. The 1st cake of the year is baked on King's Day and the next couple of weeks millions of cakes are sold and delivered throughout the world. It all ends on Fat Tuesday where all catholics celebrate Mardi Gras before the lenten season.

King Cakes are a tradition that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Schools actually celebrate through the Mardi Gras season. My son's class had one every Friday with the teacher buying the first one and the student who got the doll would buy the next cake for the following Friday.

Types

There are different types of dough and fillings that are enjoyed by millions.

Doughs -Cinnamon Dough logs are used and twisted into a circular cake. These are the most popular and tast just like a cinnamob roll.

-Donut Dough- These bakers use there donu dough to shape a cke and use a slight glaze paste to make the cake taste like a gigantic donut.

-French Bread Dough- This is the least populare of all the methods. It actually dates back to the early 1900's when this was the only dough that was availbale. The bakers used tthe dough to shape the cake and then sprinkled sugarb to give it a sweet taste.

Fillings Fillings in the cake have become very popular since the early 1970's. These fillings give the cake a great flavour and you get to choose what type of filling your cake will have. Below are some the fillings that are made available during Mardi Gras:

Bavarian Cream

Apple

Strawberry

Cream Cheese

Blueberry

Lemon

Blackberry

Zulu-Which is chocolate mixed with coconut

Pecan Praline-My favorite

Cherry

Raspberry

Chocolate

Caramel

Hot Fudge

Pineapple

Most bakeries actual mix some fillings with the most popular being Strawberry and cream cheese. It is unbelievable and not made for the health conscience person. King cakes can be ordered and delivered from most bakeries to anywhere in the USA.

Want to try to make your own King Cake? Try Mam Papaul's King Cake Mix just click on the link below