Present Bliss: KING CAKE SURPRISE

It’s Carnival Season people! And you know what that means? Parades, beads, masquerade balls, music, parties, food and...........

KING CAKE!!!

Here at the Sigety home we (and when I say we, I mean John) have a song we like to sing about this very special season. It’s centered on a delightfully delicious treat and it goes a little something like this:

(I’ll also include a free mental picture for you just because I’m so intellectually generous this season)

Picture it. John juts his elbows out as if a waiter balancing napkins on both forearms tilts his torso back and his chin down, marches, and proceeds to sing in his most regal tone: “King Cake…KING CAKE…King Cake!”

Now this might seem a strange ritual, but my man loves him some King Cake. So for all those of you that don’t habla the New Orleanian language, let me enlighten you about the wonderful “King Cake”. Or rather, let me have Wikipedia do the enlightening while I do the copy/pasting.

“The "king cake" takes its name from the biblical three kings. Catholic tradition states that their journey to Bethlehem took twelve days (the Twelve Days of Christmas), and that they arrived to honor the Christ Child on Epiphany. The season for king cake extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelfth Night and Epiphany Day), through to Mardi Gras day. Some organizations or groups of friends may have "king cake parties" every week through the Carnival season.

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. Cajun king cakes are traditionally deep-fat-fried as a doughnut would be, and there are many variants, some with a filling, the most common being cream cheese and praline.

The cake has 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).

It has become customary in the New Orleans culture that whoever finds the trinket must provide the next king cake or host the next Mardi Gras party.”

Whew! Did you get all that? We not only make huge rings of fried dough here in New Orleans, but we cover them in 3 types of sugar, icing galore, and then put a baby booby-prize inside to ensure that even when the current cake is gone – we can be sure that another will be bought and consumed soon.

So this Mardi Gras season, I have deemed myself the Queen of King Cake-dom.

Why, you ask?

1. Because my office has proceeded to buy a King Cake practically EVERY WEEK since the start of 2011

2. Because my husband is a lover of King Cakes, and thus he is the King of the cakes so that makes me the Queen

3. Oh yes, and because I HAVE A BABY INSIDE OF ME!!!!!!!!