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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Leftovers

Sweet baby Jesus it's King Cake

Posted by Owen Morris on Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 11:00 AM

king_cake_thumb_510x287.jpg

Not being Catholic or southern, I'm not too familiar with King Cake. But since it's Mardi Gras time and King Cake is a subspecies of my favorite thing in the entire world -- cake -- I knew I had to have my own this year. That and I've always wanted a naked baby Jesus.

But seriously, why the plastic baby? When I bought a King Cake from Whole Foods, the box just said the baby was supposed to bring good luck to whoever finds it. Hiding a small plastic figurine in an edible food seems more likely to bring on the Heimlich than good luck, which is part of the reason the bakery worker at Whole Foods told me not to put it in the cake. (I begged her to hide it for me so I'd be really surprised, but she refused.) Wikipedia doesn't have a good explanation for the baby, either, except to say in Europe they use a bean instead.

Even besides Baby Jesus, the cake is thick with symbolism. It's covered in three colors of icing -- the Whole Foods box says the purple is for justice, the green is for faith and the gold is for power. On my first piece I got a heaping amount of faith and no power.

My first piece turned out to be my last. The cream-cheese King Cake tasted like dried-out coffee cake but without any cinnamon or nuts. Plus, I found the baby in my first piece, which may or may not have been because I remembered where I placed it.

But with Mardi Gras festivities just starting to pick up, this won't be my only piece of King Cake and I look forward to finding many more naked babies. 

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Whoever gets the baby is supposed to buy the one for the next king cake party. Offices often do one every Friday during Carnival season. I guess I will make my own this year since it doesn't sounds like Whole Food's are worth it! Thanks for the review.

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Posted by Shelley on 02/01/2010 at 3:58 PM

Too bad your first King Cake was from Whole Food! WF is a great market but their King Cake can only be described as "nasty".
Please come to New Orleans to taste the real thing or order one from Randazzo's Bakery. Randazzo's is a New Orleans tradition and their cake is wonderful. Please don't think King Cake is totally like coffee cake, just a version of it.
As you have probable surmised, I'm a born and bred New Orleanian and any interest in my city and its traditions is welcome.

PS.
Another good, reliable bakery for King Cake is Haydel's. They also will ship worldwide.

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Posted by MJ on 11/08/2009 at 4:43 PM

http://www.mannyrandazzo.com/ My friend in New Orleans says they have the best King cakes so have faith gentle writer, surely there are better ones than your WF's cake out there.

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Posted by Bill on 02/18/2009 at 8:50 PM
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