More about the History of the King Cake
For most, the new year is a time for resolutions and fitness goals. However, in fun-loving areas like southeast Texas, the first week of January begins King Cake season, a traditional gastronomic prelude to the city’s Mardi Gras celebrations.
Between January 6 (Three King’s Day) and Mardi Gras, Local bakeries like Rao’s produce thousands of King Cakes, sweetly decorated with bright purple, green and gold. Hidden in each sugary King Cake is a small plastic baby. Custom dictates that whoever finds it must give the next King Cake party, or bring the next King Cake.
The cry “I’ve got the baby” announces that a party-goer has received the slice of cake containing the baby. That guest is King or Queen of the party, an honor that includes playing host at the following week’s King Cake festivity, where a successor is chosen in the same manner. King Cake enthusiasm also extends to offices, which serve the cakes at coffee breaks, and to parties for children whose birthdays fall during the Fat Tuesday season.
Bakers estimate that they will take more than a quarter of a million King Cakes from their ovens before the season ends on Fat Tuesday. The traditional cinnamon-flavored cakes are the most requested, but in recent years, bakeries have broadened the King Cake selection by adding to their recipes. Apple, cheese, bourbon, and praline cakes are just a few of the many varieties now available. The cakes used to be a strictly local specialty, but they are now becoming much more widely known throughout the US.
The signature Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold first appeared on the cakes after 1872, when the Rex Krew (organization) selected those colors for its opening Mardi Gras parade. The colors came to stand for Fat Tuesday and took on symbolic meanings: purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.
