The King Of Cakes
Anyone that knows me knows one of the things that I’m proudest to pronounce at any given moment is that I was born in one of the most magical food cities on the whole planet... New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans is about as “Deep South” as it gets, in some good ways and some bad. But one of the best ways Creoles and Cajuns get down and dirty (see what I did, there?) is our food. Food in New Orleans is more than sustenance. It’s an institution, each dish auspiciously serving as an institution within an institution. The combination of food and jazz music in New Orleans serve as the Big Easy’s cultural heart beat. Food and jazz music go hand in hand so much, that many refer to the process of preparation of food in New Orleans tradition as “jazz cooking.” To me, it’s one of the things that explains the most about New Orleans as a place, and the citizens of New Orleans as the stewards of an amazing culture.
This year, I made the epically correct decision to spend my birthday in New Orleans doing one of the things that I love to do the most, eating. The fact that I was born there and my birthday fell on the day before Fat Tuesday (the culmination of Mardi Gras, and it’s literally English translation) definitely helped me make this decision in the affirmative. One of my favorite things about Mardi Gras is a pastry so good, every time I have it, I wish it would become a person so I could legally marry it and make it mine forever and ever. I’m talking about King Cake.
King Cake is similar to a Mexican traditional bread called La Rosca de Los Reyes, or the Ring of the Kings. To backtrack a bit and give some traditional context, Mardi Gras is rooted in Catholicism, and is a celebration of excess or having a lot by way of experiences before one has to give up something for Lent, which is why Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is always one day before Ash Wednesday, which is the commencement of Lent. Although King Cake is served year-round in New Orleans, it’s an especially big deal during Mardi Gras. When I was a little girl, after my family moved to Los Angeles from New Orleans, my grandmother would always send me a King Cake for my birthday because I was born during Mardi Gras. This explains my strong emotional connection to what will henceforth be known as the pastry to end all pastries.
Calling King Cake a cake is a misnomer, as it is, by technical definition, a danish, albeit a very big one. As a lover of danish of all kinds, I approve of this fact. King Cakes are traditionally decorated in the prettiest formations of sugar and edible glitters in traditional Mardi Gras colors, each with a special meaning, given by Krewe Rex in 1892. Purple represents justice, green represents faith, and gold represents power. When most think of an artist's working surface, they imagine it being somewhere on the outside of a work of art. But the true magic of King Cake is definitely the inside. My favorite kind of King Cake is filled with cream cheese that has taken a form that one could only describe as what cheese becomes when it dies and goes to Heaven. A cream cheese-filled King Cake is most traditional, but with the diversity of the population of South Louisiana growing all the time post-Hurricane Katrina, that diversity is also expressed in the filling of King Cake. I recently had a piece of King Cake with the most amazing blueberry filling, and I was surprised to learn that it came from a Korean bakery in Metairie, a suburb not far from the city of New Orleans. I’ve also seen King Cake filled with strawberries and cream, apples, pears, and peaches.
One of the my all-time favorites of Mardi Gras traditions is the King Cake baby. Much like the Mexican tradition of La Rosca, King Cake is made with a small plastic bead shaped like a naked baby placed inside, with the location being a secret. There are many traditions surrounding what is to happen to the person who finds the piece of the cake with the baby in it. Some say that that person will have good luck until the next Mardi Gras. Others say that that person will be in charge of throwing the next Mardi Gras party. In my family, we go the the good luck route with that tradition. But it was always a big to-do with my crew. My sister and I always wanted to be the one to find the baby, but if it was either of us, we would always share it.
I’ve always had an emotional and very passionate connection to food. But if there’s one food where that connection is strongest, it’s King Cake. It reminds me to let the good times roll, that there is nothing more important in life than family, and most importantly, that food is an occasion, and that I should rise to it. Make sure if you have the opportunity to try some, you do! (The photo below links to a recipe from Martha Stewart for you to make your own delicious King Cake!)
