The Mardi Gras season ushers in a time of year thatsoutherners partake in countless traditions consisting of masquerade balls,parades and high-spirited fun. One important component to any Mardi Gras seasonis the king cake, a sweet dessert that has a history just as rich as theholiday it has come to symbolize.
“I’ve never had a king cake before,” said Shanelle Matthews,a Los Angeles native majoring in mass communication. “I find it immoral to bakea plastic baby inside a cake.”
But the story behind the king cake does not have immoralorigins at all.
The tradition of the king cake was introduced in New Orleansaround 1870 by French settlers who were continuing a custom dating back to 12thcentury France. It was traditionally served on Jan. 6th, the Twelfth Night,which has also been referred to as the Feast of the Epiphany.
The Twelfth Night is the celebration of the coming of thethree wise men that bestowed gifts to the baby Jesus. Hence the name “KingCake,” which was baked on Epiphany Eve in honor of the three kings.
Traditional king cakes were similar to brioches, a type ofsweetened yeast bread and they were only adorned with sprinklings of purple,green and gold colored sugars. The purple represented justice, green stood forfaith, and gold symbolized power.
But the most important ingredient of the king cake were thetiny plastic babies that were baked inside of it. These miniature tokens were arepresentation of the baby Jesus and who ever received it was looked upon asthe lucky king for the night at the Epiphany celebrations. In today’s culture,the “mock” king is expected to portray one of the three kings and bear theresponsibility of serving the next king cake to family and friends.
In other cultures, the king cake sometimes contained a coin,bean, pecan, or pea instead of a plastic baby. In France, the coin finders wereexpected to give to worthy causes and in other parts of Europe, whoever foundthe bean was crowned, given the authority to make toasts at the Twelfth Nightcelebrations, and more importantly expected to pay the bill for the party themorning after.
Today, the king cake is not only served on Jan. 6th, but onthe Twelfth Night after Christmas and until Ash Wednesday.
Tina Hubbard, a nursing major from New Orleans said, “Inschool, the teacher would bring the cake to class and whoever got the baby hadto bring the next cake, and so on and so on until Mardi Gras I think it’s fun!”
Another modern variation is the array of fillings andflavors that have seemed to surpass the original sugared ones in popularityalthough Hubbard said, “I prefer the regular kind.”
New Orleans bakeries report selling anywhere between4,000-5,000 king cakes each day, and it has been reported that more than750,000 of them are consumed during the carnival season.
