About that King Cake . . .

It belatedly occurred to me that there might be many of you who read my last post and were thinking, "King Cake? What is a King Cake?"

And of course, although there are many search engines right at your fingertips on whatever device you were using to read that, I feel it is my duty to enlighten you here. Especially on one very important point: How to eat a King Cake.

This King Cake has already been eaten, in the proper way.

So! Here's what I know about King Cakes: They are served during Mardi Gras, which is technically a season that runs from Epiphany to Fat Tuesday. Epiphany is the feast of the Three Kings. Hence the "King" part of the name. Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. And that means Fat Tuesday is the big celebration before Lent begins.

As most of you probably remember, my mother is from New Orleans, the city most famous for Mardi Gras celebrations. This is why my family traditions include King Cakes. 

King Cakes are basically giant pastries covered in an alarming amount of sugar. I guess a lot of them now have fillings like cream cheese or praline, but we always had just plain ones. The sugar on top--which must be a ridiculously heavy layer--is always in Mardi Gras colors, which are green, purple, and gold.

Those colors have some significance, I'm sure, but I don't really know what. I just know those are the colors of Mardi Gras.

And here are the colors! In a Mardi Gras banner that is now in my dining room.

Also of note: King Cakes have a small figurine of a baby in them. This baby represents the baby Jesus. In my family, we always said whoever gets the baby in their slice has to buy the King Cake the next year. Not that we ever really did that, because my grandmother was actually the one who always bought them from the bakery near her house in Metairie (a suburb of New Orleans) but we said it.

Baby Jesus. Hand for scale.

And now we come to the very important point of how to eat a King Cake. Yes, you can just slice it and eat it cold, being careful of the baby in case it should be in your piece. But King Cakes are SO much better if you put a pat of butter on top of your piece and warm it enough that the butter and the sugar both melt a little. This forms a sort of sauce for the King Cake. This is what you want.

Leftover pieces awaiting their butter and heat.

So now if you ever encounter a King Cake in the wild, you know what to do: Apply butter and heat, and look out for the baby Jesus.

Enjoy!