Each year, while the rest of the country goes into a post-Christmas frozen-ass depression, Louisiana is partying. From the Epiphany to Lent, it’s Mardi Gras season, complete with parades, really tacky purple, yellow, and gold decorations, and—the best part—delicious king cake! I’ve often said that it took me over 30 years to move to New Orleans, but I’m pretty sure my stomach has always been here. So with the important disclaimer that I’m technically a Yankee, here is my survey of the annual treat.
Rouse’s
Rouse’s
Rouse’s is a good local grocer and they have a fine standard cake. It’s a dense, cinnamonny cake with sugar sprinkles on icing. The genius part is that the ingredients list NO trans fats, which is rare for these cakes. They probably know that we would eat them very quickly and not need the preservative effects of fake fat. I think our small family destroyed this cake in under 24 hours.
Rating: 4.5 crowns
Randazzo’s
Randazzo’s
Evidently there was a messy divorce in the King Cake Dynasty of Randazzo’s and the rumor is that this outfit got to keep the name and the other party got to keep the recipe. The other party won in that trade off because Randazzo’s king cake is not good. It’s light and cakey with very subtle cinnamon making room for the slight arsenic flavor which no doubt comes from the radioactive sprinkles. The icing is maybe what you’d expect from a 5-year-old in the kitchen: it tastes pretty much like a dense kid’s birthday cake.
Rating: 2 crowns
Caluda’s
This is the beneficiary of the original Randazzo’s recipe evidently and was clearly the winner in the split. This is a delicious standard cake with full cinnamon flavor and a good ratio of icing to cake (you won’t get diabetes with one bite of this). This is probably what Rouse’s was trying to emulate except Rouse’s did Caluda’s one better by using butter instead of partially-hydrogenated nastiness.
Rating: 4 crowns
Whole Foods
Whole Foods
Sure if you get king cake from Whole Foods, there’s a high probability that it will be coming from Austin, TX, but I moved here from Austin, so I wasn’t scrrd. The king cake is what you would expect from WF: tasty, healthy (as far as cake goes), and expensive. They don’t call it whole paycheck for nothin’! I love the use of butter in the cake instead of trans fats and they limit the icing, which is another plus. The consistency of this “cake” is more like bread, however, and it’s not the ideal version.
Rating: 3.5 crowns
McKenzie’s
McKenzie’s
Not sure why the original McKenzie’s bakery went out of business, but I can guarantee you that it wasn’t because of their king cake recipe because it’s amazing. This is a simple brioche bread roll with colored sugar crystals. That’s it! But it is an amazing gustatory experience. The brioche is light and heavenly and the topping is just sweet enough. If you don’t require all the fancy fillings that the kids are getting into these days, the McKenzie’s cake is quite possibly your best bet. You can find these delicious treats at Tastee’s Donuts locations during Carnival season.
Rating: 5 crowns
Acquistapace’s
Acquistapace’s
This Northshore local grocer may specialize in wine and cheese, but their king cake is excellent. With a braided cinnamon roll, cream cheese icing, and standard yellow, green, and purple sugar crystals, this is traditional and extremely tasty. When you add the popular fillings (they get pretty crazy with cream cheese, apple, lemon, banana/strawberry, and strawberry cream cheese), this is certainly diabetes in a bite. But it may just be worth it. The ingredients are a mystery since they don’t list them, but the taste alone is enough to make it one of your favorites.
Rating: 4,5 crowns
More to come…