The King Cake. Some of you reading this may find your mouth watering when hearing this phrase. Others may feel quite indifferent, and still there is the occasional Alaskan reader who may be a little confused by this unusual name. Until my recent move to the Mississippi Gulf Coast (or close to it) I was very uneducated about this cherished New Orleans and Gulf Coast tradition. I would like to share with you my limited knowledge of this special treat and what it means to people here on the Gulf Coast. Feel free to correct any of my misunderstandings or add your own info and experience's.
My first experience with King Cake was years ago when I first moved to Mississippi. It was cafeteria King Cake in Mississippi College's caf, and it was weird. And not very tasty. I was told by a few southern friends that I shouldn't base my opinion of King Cake on that one experience, and they encouraged me to try "real" King Cake. This opinion makes logical sense to me. After all, it was cafeteria food. However, the opportunity never presented itself. So, last week was the first time I ever had "real" King Cake, and let me tell you it was an, uh, interesting experience. First of all, I had to eat it alone, which is no fun at all. Lance brought me home a piece from a staff meal that I couldn't attend because Caleb had the flu. Apparently, at the meal, everyone was talking about some baby that they were looking for. Since, I had never had "real" King Cake, I didn't know anything about the problem of the missing baby or that I had to worry about a baby at all while eating King Cake. Boy, was I wrong. Lance brought me a take-home box with my dinner and King Cake, and then he left without mentioning the missing baby. I know those of you who don't know what King Cake is, are quite confused now about this missing baby.... But stay with me, and we will get to that. So, there I was, eyeing this brightly colored cake which looked to me like some kind of strange mix between a cherry pastry and birthday cake with a gazillion sprinkles. (It sorta looked like whoever was putting on the sprinkles accidentally lost the top and just decided to pour the entire container onto the cake.) Anyway. I decided to give it a try. I used my fork to get a nice, big bite and put it into my mouth.......Crunch. I thought, "What? Crunch? Cake is not supposed to crunch." (This is about to get a little graphic for those of you with weak stomachs.) So, I chew around this hard thing in my mouth, decide it's definitely not edible, and decide that there is no way I'm swallowing it. At this point, I am glad that I am not at the staff meal where I would have to pull a half-eaten piece of something out of my mouth. So, I slowly pull out the hard thing....And you would not believe what I found.....A naked, plastic baby! No, I am not kidding you people. There was a naked, plastic baby in my cake. Apparently, it is normal for there to be naked, plastic babies in King Cakes, but did Lance or anyone else care to clue me in on this? Nope. I got to find out on my own. A very strange experience.
I have to admit I wasn't super impressed. The overabundance of sprinkles was a little much, and the mixture of flavors was unusual for me. I'm sorry, but I'm not a King Cake fan. It did intrigue me though. I mean, how many cakes have naked, plastic babies in them? Not too many that I've heard of before. So I decided to do a little research.
King cake is a traditional food of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras celebrations begin on Twelfth Night, after a period of time called Epiphany, which are the twelve days following Christmas. Mardi Gras ends on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is also known as Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras is french for Fat Tuesday. King Cake is a dessert that people enjoy during Mardi Gras season. It is made of dough similar to cinnamon coffee cake dough, and it is twisted into an oval. Different cakes are made different ways. Many are filled with fruit and cream cheese. The cake is usually covered in purple, green and gold sprinkles. Purple stands for justice. Green stands for faith, and gold represents power. Since making king cakes has become such a popular tradition, many bakers specialize in making different types and colored cakes. There is one thing that most King Cakes have in common, and that is the baby. There is a plastic baby inserted into the cake. The tradition is that whoever finds the baby has to buy the next cake.
I looked into the history and meaning behind King Cakes, and I found a lot of information. A good bit of the information was inconsistent. King Cakes have been around for so many years. King Cake is in celebration of the three kings who went to visit Baby Jesus. January 6th is called King's Day, and is believed by some to be the day that the wise men visited Jesus, twelve days after Christmas. The baby inside the King Cake is supposed to represent Jesus. I also saw some stories about a group called Twelfth Night Revelers, which began celebrations in the 1870s. On the traditional Catholic holiday of Mardi Gras, they threw a carnival. At the carnival a make-believe king and queen were crowned. The person who found a gold bead in their cake was the king or queen for the next year.
Even though I am not so crazy about King Cake, I did enjoy learning about it. So, everyone enjoy some King Cake this Mardi Gras, and watch out for the baby!
I'm not a fan of most king cakes either. They're too sweet and the candied sprinkles just make it worse. However, Paul's Pastry in Picayune, MS makes them with a glaze and slivered almonds on top. (They make them with the sugar, but I don't buy those.) Their cakes aren't super sweet and the fillings don't taste like canned pie filling. My favorite is the plain cream cheese filling one...I could eat a whole one by myself. I would say that the Pillsbury cream cheese toaster pastries are about the closest thing I've had to the cream cheese king cake at Paul's. All this to say, try their king cake before you decide you don't like any king cake...their king cake is the only kind I eat.
ReplyDeleteSarah- you cannot write off king cake til you've had one from New Orleans. They are the absolute best at making king cakes!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in la, and mardi gras was a huge deal. We'd have several king cakes during class around mardi gras, and I always wanted to be the special kid who found the baby. Although our babies were metallic gold. Haha.
Wish I could have seen your reaction to the baby, though. I bet that was pretty funny. ~Sarah Graham