When I interviewed Martha Hall Foose recently for a story on fried pies, the conversation turned to king cakes, those delectable seasonal desserts with purple, yellow, and green frosting. They’re often festooned with medallions and Mardi Gras beads.
As soon as the holidays are over, I order a king cake from Kay Bakery at 667 Avon Road. I love their cakes, which are made of sweet dough and are frosted with the traditional three colors.
There’s just something special about king cakes, which are traditionally eaten between Epiphany (January 6th) and Fat Tuesday, which falls on February 17th this year.
“It’s not like they’re dancing around all year round,” Foose says. “It’s something to look forward to: the joy of eating a king cake.”
Foose, whose Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook won the 2009 James Beard Foundation Award for American Cooking, knows a thing or two about king cakes. She even taught a course on them.
Plus, she lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where her husband, Donald Bender, is head baker at Loblolly Bakery, which makes king cakes, including blueberry cream cheese, Deep South Praline, and Crescent City Cinnamon.
King cakes are said to have originated in Epiphany celebrations of the Magi (“We three kings of Orient are …”) in France and Spain sometime in the 12th century. French settlers then brought the tradition to Louisiana sometime in the 1870s.
The cakes are made in different ways, but the most familiar varieties are made of brioche, a yeast-enriched bread, with the aforementioned three colors of frosting. Purple customarily represents justice, green, faith, and gold (yellow), power, but they also represent the gifts the Magi bestowed on baby Jesus. Thus, most of these cakes have a plastic baby hidden inside or placed outside of the cake.
Plastic babies began showing up at McKenzie’s Bakery in New Orleans after World War II, Foose says. But over the years, other things besides plastic babies were hidden in the cakes. These include fava beans, fruits, and jewelry.
Up until the late 1800s, little clay figures, which potters used to test the temperature of kilns, were used by bakers in king cakes.
Later, porcelain “Pillar dolls” or “frozen Charlotte dolls” were hidden in cakes. They were named after a little girl in a folk song who froze to death on a sleigh ride “because she wouldn’t cover up her pretty dress,” Foose explains.
King cakes are made globally, with a variety of different ingredients. “You see coconut ones and guava jelly in the Caribbean and Latin America.”
In the United States, the cakes began showing up during Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Mobile. “You had the spice trade coming in, so you’d see them heavily spiced,” says Foose.
The classic king cakes, like the ones at Kay Bakery, are my favorite type. But Foose has seen all kinds, including one made with wedding cake and another with “cream cheese and strawberry pie filling.” Savory versions of king cake are sometimes filled with rice and boudin sausage.
Leftover king cake — and there will be leftover king cake — can be sliced and used as French toast. An easy method is to just pour melted vanilla ice cream over the cake and fry it in a skillet, Foose says. Or it can be made with frozen monkey bread or frozen cinnamon roll dough. “Just cut it into quarters and put it in a pan. And throw it in the oven.”
Here are more places to find king cakes:
Daniel Blanchard, owner of Blanchard’s Organic Breads, makes two types of king cake: the New Orleans type and the galette des rois.
The New Orleans variety is made with a bread enriched with tangzhong, a bread softener made of flour and milk. “It thickens your dough and makes it extremely soft,” Blanchard says.
He fills the king cake with Creole cream cheese, which is sweet, and adds cinnamon, cardamom, and a vanilla bean icing on top. “I hand-dye my sugars myself,” he says.
The galette des rois, French for “cake of the kings,” is made of hand-laminated puff pastry and filled with almond French frangipane paste.
Blanchard takes orders with 24 hours notice. His cakes can be picked up on his front porch at 470 South Prescott Street between 8:30 a.m. and noon on Wednesdays and from his cart at Joe’s Wines & Liquor at 1681 Poplar Avenue.
King cake slices from his cart at Joe’s are available until Fat Tuesday. People are more than welcome to purchase any half cakes he might have on hand. To order, call Blanchard at (971) 284-2705.
The cut-off date to order home-made king cakes from St. Michael Catholic Church has passed, but they have extra king cakes that can be purchased, says Father Ben Bradshaw, pastor.
“We do four different kinds every year,” Bradshaw says. “We have two flavors we keep every year: Nutella and cherry. And we also have one flavor we change every year.” Creme brûlée is this year’s flavor of the year.
They also make a galette des rois with puff pastry and with frangipane or almond paste cream inside.
All the cakes are made by Bradshaw and three teams of 20 parishioners each: the bakers, the decorators, and the packagers.
For information on St. Michael’s king cakes, call Gwen Coffey at the parish office at (901) 323-0896.
Ounce of Hope, a leading local purveyor of THC, CBD, delta-8 THC, and other hemp-derived cannabinoid products, launched its THC-infused king cake this year. According to its news release, “This limited-edition seasonal treat blends the rich tradition of Louisiana’s famous Mardi Gras dessert with a modern cannabis twist. It contains 250 mg of hemp-derived delta-9 THC per cake and is only available through mid-February.”
The cake is made in a Lafayette, Louisiana, bakery that Ounce of Hope partnered with. The cakes are available in praline, pecan, and cream cheese; traditional cinnamon; cream cheese; and wedding cake flavors. Cakes are shipped Mondays through Thursdays.
According to the release, Ounce of Hope founder Collin Bercier, a Lafayette native, “saw an opportunity to merge his Louisiana roots with his Memphis-based cannabis brand, creating a one-of-a-kind edible.” (These products are not for use by or sale to persons under the age of 21.)
The cakes are available through mid-February on the Ounce of Hope website, ounceofhope.com.