~Today is Fat Tuesday... or in French: Mardi Gras! This is the last day before Lent season leading up to Easter. We celebrated Mardi Gras and learned about the New Orleans King Cake tradition.
New Orleans king cake
In the southern United States, the tradition was brought to the area by colonists from France and Spain and it is associated with Carnival (also known as Mardi Gras), which is celebrated in the Gulf Coast region, centered on New Orleans, but ranging from the Florida Panhandle to East Texas. King cake parties in New Orleans are documented back to the eighteenth century.
The king cake of the New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition comes in a number of styles. The most simple, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green, and gold (the traditional Mardi Gras colors) with food coloring. Cajun king cakes are traditionally deep-fat-fried as a doughnut would be, and there are many variants, some with a filling, the most common being cream cheese and praline.
It has become customary in the New Orleans culture that whoever finds the trinket must provide the next king cake or host the next Mardi Gras party.
