King Cake Traditions

A King Cake (sometimes written as kingcake, kings' cake, king's cake, or three kings cake) is a type of cake associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season in a number of countries, and in other places (New Orleans) with Mardi Gras and Carnival.

Louisiana style King Cake: A cinnamon-roll like cake inside with sugary icing with traditional Mardi Gras colored sprinkles on the outside.

The king cake of the New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition comes in a number of styles. The most simple, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green, and gold (the traditional Carnival colors) with food coloring. There are many variants, some with a filling, the most common being cream cheese and praline. Cajun king cakes are traditionally,deep fat fried as a doughnut would be. They are topped with sugar granules in the official Carnival colors of purple, green and gold. The purple represents the passion of Christ, the green represents hope and the gold the rewards of leading a Christian life.

The cakes have a small trinket (often a small plastic baby) inside, and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations (such as buying the cake for the next celebration).

Posted via web from New Orleans clippings