Happy Mardi Gras! We were fortunate enough to be in New Orleans during the start of Carnival season, so we were able to experience genuine King Cakes from New Orleans.
The King Cake is made of braided Danish pastry dough, and usually has some sort of filling like cream cheese, fruit or nut paste. It’s adorned with colorful sprinkles in green, purple and gold. Traditionally, a plastic baby is hidden in the cake to represent Jesus as well as wealth and prosperity. The person who gets the slice with the baby is obligated to make or bring the King cake the following year.
During our trip, we ended up trying three different ones.
Elvis King Cake from Cochon Butcher
During our visit to Cochon Butcher, we ordered a slice of the Elvis King Cake. It’s filled with bananas and peanut butter.
Mini King Cakes from Cochon Butcher
Cochon Butcher was also selling mini king cakes. We ended up buying three so we could give a few as gifts and keep one for ourselves. Instead of a baby, they put a tiny pig in the center. Most places no longer hide a baby inside because of the potential choking hazard, and instead put the baby in the center of the cake. We ended up keeping the almond paste one.
King Cake from Sucré
We heard that Sucre was supposed to make one of the best King Cakes in New Orleans. It was definitely one of the prettiest ones we saw. Instead of the regular sprinkles, there’s is decorated with shimmery dust which made the cakes look so elegant. The center was a sweet cream cheese, which reminded me of eating a danish.
I love how the cake sparkles.
Like the Cochon Butcher ones, the baby was only placed in the center of the cake. We ate an entire one just to be sure 😉
Of the cakes we tried, Sucre was our favorite.I think in general though, the cakes were a bit too sweet for me. I’ve never really liked Danish pastries and these cakes are so similar. Still, it was fun to experience them. After we left, some of our friends had one from Toast Cafe, which they thought was even better than the Sucre one. I’m sad to have missed out on that one!
Never really been a filled king cake kind of girl but that is one tradition I miss the most from NOLA.
it is a pretty cool tradition!
All of those King Cakes you tried look so pretty (I love those colored sprinkles), especially the one with the shimmery top. Very nice! I guess putting the plastic baby on top definitely prevents someone from accidentally eating it. Imagine choking on that, ugh. As for Danish, you might change your mind once you’ve tried the Danish pastries from Copenhagen in Pasadena (we were recently there, and yeah, wow!). Totally worth it! One of these days, if we ever have a chance to go to New Orleans, Bert, TC and I will have to hit up all the spots you’ve highighted so far, especially Sucre.
oh i really want to go to Copenhagen. And yes, you’d love Sucre!
I love Sucre! We order goodies from them throughout the year. 🙂
I was so excited to visit their store in New Orleans! I still havent posted about it, but they had so many good desserts!