King Cakes vital part of Carnival season

     You’ll see them everywhere when you visit Lafayette for Mardi Gras. They’re sugary sweet, full of wonderful surprises — including a plastic baby — and are synonymous with the Carnival season.

Keller's

     King Cakes are linked to French traditions surrounding the Twelfth Night of Christmas, or Jan. 6, when the Magi visited the Christ Child with gifts. The king cake isn’t relegated to just France and Louisiana, but our tri-colored cake dates back to Louisiana’s mother country of France. Naturally, being the adventurous Louisiana, we have enhanced the dessert quite a bit.

Poupart's

     The French gateau de roi is much simpler, but with a surprise inside as well (you can find an example at Poupart’s French bakery in Lafayette). The person who receives the special bean, token or baby inside becomes the queen or king for the day. 

     In Louisiana, we begin king cake enjoyment on Jan. 6 and continue through the Carnival Season all the way to Mardi Gras, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when this sort of decadence is supposed to stop, at least if you’re Catholic. Also, our cakes run the gamut, most commonly an oval shaped dough stuffed with fillings that’s topped with icing and sugar sprinkles in the Carnival colors of purple, green and gold. 

     Louisiana tradition has it that whoever receives the baby in their king cake must buy the next one — and so it goes for weeks on end. You can imagine that all those good intentions of losing weight after the holidays get thrown out the window during Carnival.

     Like most culinary treats, king cakes have evolved. We now have fried king cakes, king cake cupcakes, king cake bread pudding, king cake fries and king cake cocktails, to name a few. There’s even a humorous Facebook page titled King Cake Baby. 

     To see what Lafayette has to offer, visit The King Caker web site, which reviews king cake establishments. To read last year’s blog on king cakes with references to local king cake makers, visit the King Cake blog 2013.

King Cakes vital — and diverse — part of Mardi Gras fun

   The season of Carnival begins on Jan. 6, known as the Epiphany or Twelfth Night, the day the Christ Child was visited by the three kings. And with this date comes an old Louisiana tradition — enjoying King Cakes!
    The creation of “King Cakes” began in 12th century France when a cake was baked on the eve of Jan. 6 with a small token hidden inside. Whoever got the token in his or her slice became the royalty of the night.

Keller's traditional king cake

    The king cake tradition made its way to Louisiana, but like all good things we tend to keep it going as long as we can. Cakes are enjoyed on Jan. 6, usually with a small baby inside, and whoever gets the token must buy the next cake and so on it goes. We enjoy our King Cakes, decorated in the Carnival colors of purple, green and gold, until Ash Wednesday, the day following Mardi Gras.

Meche's King Cake

    Louisiana king cakes come plain (with decoration on top), filled with wonderful things like cream cheese, fruit preserves and pecan praline or are created in unique and wonderful ways. Meche’s Donuts of Acadiana, for instance, rolls out its dough the traditional way, then deep fries the oval ring before adding frosting. Little Big Cup coffeeshop in Arnaudville offers mini king cakes, more of a small bite of Carnival heaven. Poupart’s French bakery in Lafayette serves up a more traditional French-style king cake, in addition to the Louisiana variety. Sophi P. Cakes offers the tradition cupcake style. And so it goes.

Little Big Cup Mini King Cakes

    In addition to the famous king cake, there are interesting takes on the tradition within our culinary scene. For instance, Freetown Fries gourmet food truck of Lafayette, which serves up different and delicious entrees with home fries, offers a King Cake Fry consisting of sweet potato fries topped with a cream cheese glaze in Carnival colors. Café Vermilionville is offering Carnival cocktails and appetizers for the festive season, including King Cake martinis made up of champagne, spiced rum, amaretto, fresh squeezed orange, Amaretto icing and cream.

Freetown Fries King Cake Fry

    Ask anyone in town what their favorite king cake proprietor is and you’ll get a dozen answers. Visitors will generally find king cakes in mini marts, grocery stores and coffee shops as well as bakeries. Here are a few to sample (and by all means not a complete list!):
    Gambino’s Bakery, 3802 Johnston, (337) 406-9066, www.gambinos.com
    Great Harvest Bread Co., 854A Kaliste Saloom Road, (337) 236-8966, www.greatharvestofacadiana.com
    Keller’s Bakery, 1012 Jefferson St., (337) 235-1568, www.kellersbakery.net
    Little Big Cup, 149 Fuselier Road, Arnaudville, (337) 754-7147
    Meche’s Donut King, 402 Guilbeau Road, (337) 981-4918, and other locations
    Poupart’s, 1902 W. Pinhook Road, (337) 232-7921, www.poupartsbakery.com
    Sophi P. Cakes, 3209 Johnston St., (337) 456-5582, www.sophipcakes.com
    What’s your favorite king cake? Please visit our Facebook page and let us know. Feel free to post photos as well!