King Cake is Important Part of Mardi Gras Tradition
The King Cake is a very important tradition connected to Mardi Gras merriment, both in the city of New Orleans or wherever Mardi Gras celebrations are held. The King Cake is a delicious and culturally significant part of Mardi Gras menus since the start of Mardi Gras.
A time-honored King Cake is by tradition an oblong or oval shaped cinnamon dough cake, glazed with sugar frosting and sprinkled with colored sugar. The traditional colored sugar is Purple – (representing Justice), Green – (representing Faith) and Gold – (representing Power)! King Cakes are available in all sorts of colors and flavored fillings such as cream cheese, strawberry, and apple.
Unlike ordinary cakes, the enjoyment of a King Cake isn’t merely restricted to its deliciousness. Concealed on the bottom (after baking) of every King Cake is a small plastic figurine in the figure of a baby. Whoever discovers the baby is formally pronounced the King or Queen of the celebration and receives the honor of providing the next King Cake or throwing the next Mardi Gras Party. A small number of Superkrewes in New Orleans, those who organize the larger parades, use the King Cake to determine who will be their King or Queen the float – by who finds the baby. In New Orleans jargon, it is referred to as “Who got da baby?”
The King Cake season formally opens on King’s Day, January 6, the feast of the Epiphany. Countless folks in the New Orleans area will begin having King Cake parties in the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. It is hardly uncommon for businesses and schools in Louisiana to have King Cake on a almost daily basis. Many people add cultural significance and importance to the King Cake and regard it as important a tradition as the Mardi Gras parades themselves. This was particularly true in 2006, the first Mardi Gras season following Hurricane Katrina, as Louisiana bakeries were inundated with King Cake orders not just Louisiana but all over the world. Having lost much in the hurricane and not willing to sacrifice tradition, huge numbers of displaced Louisianans turned to the King Cake to give them that taste of home and solace for better times.
On a Friday night in 1964, in a Buffalo, NY bar, a group of people arrived at the bar with ravenous appetites. The cook prepared something special for the folks.
