King cake is my fave Valentine’s + Mardi Gras mashup
My Valentine’s Day tradition of Mardi Gras king cake.
Growing up in south Mississippi, king cakes would start appearing shortly after Christmas. School party? King cake. Club meetings? King cake. Going with your friend to a local parade? Also king cake. Wandering around the grocery store? Believe it or not, WHOLE LOTTA KING CAKE.
As a kid I never really stopped to consider Mardi Gras and its traditions beyond the fact that I was thrilled as the sightings of those gold, purple, and green ovals started appearing. And you can bet I felt like I’d won a gold medal every time I found that dang baby in my slice. But it was a food I took for granted; once Mardi Gras was over and the cakes disappeared I forgot about them.
My husband and I got married in 2010 and I moved to live with him in Houston, TX. No one in our circle cared about Mardi Gras and most didn’t seem to know what a king cake was. We were only one state over from the heart of Mardi Gras celebration and festivities but it felt like a world away. It was devastating. A church member, who was born (I think) and raised in Louisiana often lamented the lack of Mardi Gras observation in Texas. Suddenly all those cakes I’d taken for granted seemed way more important.
In the early part of 2012 a friend was driving over from Louisiana to visit me and I realized this was a prime opportunity to get my hands on that cinnamon-y roll of bread with sugary sweet icing and gold, purple, and green sprinkles and asked her if she’d bring one with her. Any cake from any place she wanted and I would pay her back. She willingly obliged and my God, that is true friendship. My glee when I opened that box was probably too much for an adult woman but KING CAKE! It had been so long! I think she picked it up from a local bakery she liked but all I remember was that I was in heaven.
The next year, I was working at Whole Foods Market and was beyond excited to find slices of king cake in little plastic clamshells in the bakery department. I have a soft spot for the traditional drier king cakes—they’re much less “cake” and way more bread but the icing and sugar on top are the perfect compliment and the subtly cinnamon-y flavor is great. For lunch one day I bought a drink and a slice of cake and happily trucked back up the stairs to my desk to dig in. Y’all that cake was GROSS. This king cake felt like it was made by someone had driven through New Orleans and had guessed at what a king cake tasted like. Bad bad BAD. I still ate it—I mean, king cake—but I was devastated.
And this is where this king cake tradition really starts. At least I think so. I dug through a crap ton of old pictures and credit card statements and mentally cycled through memories trying to put the bread trail together for this post but I came up fairly empty at this king cake. I have vague memories of the fact that Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras were days apart and my husband wanted to remedy the devastation of the Whole Foods king cake but I have no pictures and no proof that the 2013 V-Day king cake actually existed. But regardless, I still consider 2013 the true start of this Valentine’s Day/Mardi Gras mashup tradition.
The 2014 cake was from Joe Gambino’s and it was the last Mardi Gras we celebrated in Houston. Gambino’s is an institution, on all the “Where to get your king cake!” lists and this cake was unsurprisingly delicious. Many of the big king cake shippers send you a blank cake and all the icing and decorations in their own packaging so you do the decorating yourself. Frankly I don’t mind this as it means I get a fresh end product that didn’t get banged up in the mail plus the added benefit of I DO WHAT I WANT when it comes to decorating.
2015 was a king cake with pecan praline filling from Paul’s Pastry Shop. Paul’s Pastry was kind of *the* place to get your king cake from in Mississippi. Grocery king cakes were abundant (and will forever hold a special place in my heart) but a cake from Paul’s Pastry got that “Oooooo” response at whatever gathering where it was being served. This was also my first Valentine’s Day themed cake! Paul’s, and other places I’m sure, let you choose a theme for your cake and ship you the decorations so you can decorate it to your liking. I absolutely love the traditional gold, purple, and green color scheme but I about flipped my lid at the pink and red eyesore I created.
My perfectly tiny and shimmery cake from Sucré in 2016 was a showstopper for sure. It also came with appropriately festive macarons so the whole package was just very luxe feeling. Unfortunately that’s about all it had going for it as the cake itself was almost inedibly dry and bland. I’d like to try it again some day to see if my experience was an outlier but man, what a bummer it was to be let down by something so pretty.
After the disappointment of the previous year, for 2017 we circled back to an old favorite, Paul’s Pastry. I truly just cannot resist that classic pecan praline filling and sometimes you just need to know you’re getting a good product that will not leave you sad after you take a bite, y’know?
2018 was a Paul’s repeat. I’d had a different king cake in mind but it only came with a cream cheese icing which I knew my husband would hate. And even though it’s technically *my* Valentine’s day gift, part of the fun is sharing it with him and I didn’t like the thought of leaving him out so at the last second I called an audible and went with our old standby.
2019. Holy cow, 2018. I feel the need to reiterate that I love a traditional, slightly dry, no fancy business king cake. Okay? I do. But this brownie chocolate chip filled cake from Haydel’s Bakery? A REVELATION. It is truly a cake I think about all the time, all these years later because it was so dang good and sweet and chocolate-y and WOW. With that super decadent filling, it was the cake-like cake we’d ever had and I loved it so, so much.
2020 was an *interesting* year right? Before I knew what was coming our way, I’d decided to skip out on tradition and instead make my own cake using Taste of the South Magazine’s classic king cake recipe. It was *really* fun to make such an iconic food, I felt so proud when I’d finished, and the taste was out of this world. All great things! But honestly? I missed the tradition. It felt weir’d making my own king cake and not getting one in the mail. I’m glad I did it but I don’t see myself ever doing it again—at least not in place of my regularly scheduled gift.
When I saw the king cakes Brennan’s was offering for the 2021 season there was never a question about what cake I wanted for Valentine’s Day—their chocolate “black & gold” number spoke to me on a deep deep level. It arrived in practically pristine condition, which is saying a lot for a pre-decorated cake being shipped across the country. I LOVE sugary sweet things so I was prepared for a sugar coma after slicing into this cake but chocolate brioche dough was a really nice balance to the sweeter chocolate ganache and cookies on top.
So those are my king cakes through the years. I get that king cake isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but this little Valentine’s Day + Mardi Gras tradition is truly special to me. When I made my own cake in 2020, just before the world fell apart, I didn’t think I’d care about skipping the tradition for just one year. But turns out I did. A lot.
This past year has taught everyone about the things that matter and, oddly enough, this cake has come to symbolize what really matters to me. It’s something I look forward to every year and I love seeing what everyone’s offering and figuring out what kind of cake I’m in the mood for that year. I love the anticipation of waiting on its arrival so I can finally dig in and share it with the person I love. And sharing the bounty with whoever’s around is a great way to spread a bit of love and let people in on a taste of the festive Mardi Gras spirit.
Laissez les bon temps rouler. Bonne chance et bon courage.
