King Cakes

February 11

I am thankful for King Cakes. More than this being just a tasty dessert, I love the tradition and how it draws people in Louisiana together during the Mardi Gras season. As I recall, King Cakes used to be plain, round or oblong coffee type ring cakes with sugar icing on top, often sprinkled with purple, green, and yellow food coloring or sprinkles (traditional Mardi Gras colors) with cinnamon filling inside. Now you can get King Cakes with multitudes of different filling flavors: fruit, creme cheese, praline, chocolate, etc. A special King Cake called the Zulu cake contains chocolate and coconut. They are all rather tasty.

The story of King Cakes goes back many years back to their origins from France and Spain. According to Wikipedia (I have to admit my love of Wiki!) the tradition dates back to the eighteenth century in New Orleans. The king in the name represents the three kings who went to visit baby Jesus. Tradition calls for the hiding of a plastic baby, representing the baby Jesus, inside the cake. The person that receives the piece of cake containing the baby is responsible for hosting the next King Cake party. In Louisiana, it has been traditional to hold a weekly king cake party in offices along with morning coffee breaks. It is the duty of the baby holder to bring the next King Cake. Nowadays, because of the fear of someone choking on the baby and possible litigation, most bakeries now put the baby outside the king cake.

luck

there are those born with positive luck

always winning contests and raffles

how they continue to win

and beat the odds always baffles

but i was born

with something called negative luck

like getting hit by bird poo bombs

and with the short straw always stuck

i will gingerly take my bites

of my morsel of king cake and sigh

knowing that i will invariably get the baby

and the next cake i will have to buy.

© rt tulley