King cake
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A king cake (sometimes rendered as kingcake) is a type of cake associated with Carnival traditions. It is popular in Carnival season in the area of the United States which celebrates Carnival ranging from Mobile, Alabama to East Texas, centered on New Orleans. The cakes have a small trinket (usually a small plastic baby) inside, and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations.
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[edit] History
The tradition was brought to the area by colonists from France and Spain. King cake parties in New Orleans are documented back to the eighteenth century.
Related culinary traditions are the tortell of Catalonia, the gâteau des Rois in Provence or the galette des Rois in the northern half of France, and the Greek vasilopita.
Samuel Pepys (whose wife was French) recorded a party in London on Epiphany night, 6 January 1659/1660: "...to my cosen Stradwick, where, after a good supper, there being there my father, mother, brothers, and sister, my cosen Scott and his wife, Mr. Drawwater and his wife, and her brother, Mr. Stradwick, we had a brave cake brought us, and in the choosing, Pall was Queen and Mr. Stradwick was King. After that my wife and I bid adieu and came home, it being still a great frost." [1]
The choosing of King and Queen from the pie, usually by the inclusion of a bean and a pea, was a traditional English Twelfth Night festivity (see there for other early English references).
[edit] New Orleans king cake
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 coloured purple, green, and gold (the traditional Carnival colors) with food colouring. Some varieties have filling inside, the most common being cream cheese followed by praline. Famous bakeries of the king cake are Antoine's, Gambino's, Haydel, and Randazzo, who feature original recipes and types of king cakes.
The "king cake" takes its name from the Biblical three kings. Catholic tradition states that their journey to Bethlehem took twelve days (the Twelve Days of Christmas), and that they arrived to honor the Christ child on Epiphany. The season for king cake extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelfth Night and Epiphany Day), through to Mardi Gras day. Some organizations or groups of friends may have "king cake parties" every week through the Carnival season.
[edit] The trinket
The traditional trinket in the cake is a bean, still seen in some European traditions but rare in U.S. king cakes. It is echoed, however, in some krewes' use of a gilded bean trinket.
Since the 1950s, the most common trinket has been a small plastic baby. Many people say this represents the baby Jesus, tied in to the connection with Epiphany. Many people attach no particular religious significance to the cake or trinket. The "baby in the king cake" was said to have become common after a local bakery chain got a large shipment of such plastic baby dolls from Hong Kong very cheaply in the 1950s, and some people say there is little further significance to the baby, but earlier ceramic baby dolls as trinkets are documented in New Orleans back to at least the 1930s. Running a distant second to babies, a trinket representing a king wearing a crown is the next most common design of trinket. Trinkets in the form of other figures have also been seen historically, and starting in the 1990s again became more common in the more expensive "gourmet" varieties of king cake. The common plastic baby of today is usually colored pink, brown, white or gold. Due to the choking hazard posed by small trinkets, some bakeries opt to include the "plastic baby" separately from the pastry. The plastic babies are most often found separately in cakes from stores not native to New Orleans such as Sav-A-Center, whereas local bakeries are more likely to sell cakes with babies already inside. Usually when kingcakes are ordered to be shipped out of New Orleans the cake and trinket are packaged separately so that the plastic baby will not pose a choking threat to kingcake novices.
It is common for New Orleanian children to collect kingcake babies and play with them alongside the rest of their dolls and toys.
[edit] Privileges and obligations associated with the trinket
The person who gets the trinket is declared king or queen of the party, sometimes given a paper, plastic, or costume jewelry crown or tiara. Sometimes there are separate cakes to select the male and female royalty; the one for women is sometimes called a queen cake. The monarch is usually obligated to supply the next king cake or host the next party or both. King cake parties may be held at the homes of people who live on or near the routes of Carnival parades.
It is a common practice in elementary schools to have King cake parties, usually on a Friday. The person who gets the trinket is required to bring the cake the following week.
In some office work places, a variation on this tradition is simplified so that workers share a king cake at lunch or during the day, with the person getting the trinket having to bring the cake for the next work day, with no other ceremony.
Some krewes select their monarchs via king cake.
[edit] References
- Diary of Samuel Pepys/1660/January. (2006, July 29). Wikisource, The Free Library. Retrieved 00:53, February 22, 2007 from http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Diary_of_Samuel_Pepys/1660/January&oldid=220365.
- Christmas. Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved on December 22, 2005. Primarily subhead Popular Merrymaking under Liturgy and Custom.
- Christmas Trivia edited by Jennie Miller Helderman, Mary Caulkins. Gramercy, 2002
- Marix-Evans, Martin. The Twelve Days of Christmas. Peter Pauper Press, 2002
- Bowler, Gerry. The World Encyclopedia of Christmas. McClelland & Stewart, 2004
- Collins, Ace. Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Zondervan, 2003
