Kingcakes

[TAPrice]

I know, I know, I know.

Wal-Mart in Elmwood.

[Mayhaw Man]

I know, I know, I know.

Wal-Mart in Elmwood.

←

That's not fair. I should have excluded you from this fabulous contest. I'm afraid that you didn't read the fine print about "employees of the station and their families..."

But you are right, according to them, they sold 125,000 king cakes in the last two months.

And, you know, they're pretty good. They're not superior, those King Cakes, but they're not that bad.

[TAPrice]

What's really not fair is that I bet you learned this from either Mary Beth or Joe from the SFA. Since they were crashing in my living room during Mardi Gras, I really had the advantage.

They did an interview with the ladies who made the king cakes. Hopefully they can post it on the SFA website.

And they were pretty good king cakes. I certainly ate my fill.

Edited March 1, 2006 by TAPrice (log)

[bavila]

I like making my own king cakes, and have done so the last few years. I've been using an Emeril recipe from the Food Network. Anyone have any favorites they can point to? I think next time I'd like to try for a more moist dough, and maybe do some kind of pecan sugary filling.

[Mayhaw Man]

What's really not fair is that I bet you learned this from either Mary Beth or Joe from the SFA. Since they were crashing in my living room during Mardi Gras, I really had the advantage.

They did an interview with the ladies who made the king cakes. Hopefully they can post it on the SFA website.

And they were pretty good king cakes. I certainly ate my fill.

←

Of course I learned it from them, and in fact, I'm the one that sent them to your house. I was already full up with teenagers and an odd New Yorker who spent way too much time in the bathroom making his hair look like he hadn't spent any time in the bathroom. Thankfully, he will be gone when I get home today.

I hope that they get some of that up on the website. It sounded pretty interesting.

B

[Gifted Gourmet]

Aren't the moister King Cakes made with cream cheese? I have seen recipes for those .. and they sometimes add fruit fillings ...

For the uninitiated and unfamiliar, here is a pictorial of how King Cake is made:

from the freshloaf.com website

[bavila]

Aren't the moister King Cakes made with cream cheese? I have seen recipes for those .. and they sometimes add fruit fillings ...

For the uninitiated and unfamiliar, here is a pictorial of how King Cake is made:

from the freshloaf.com website

←

Well, mine has cream cheese as the filling. But maybe it would be nice as part of the dough. Hmmm...

[joiei]

I am sure there are a ton of different recipes for King Cake. I don't remember the ones I had in New Orleans having the raisin/walnut filling per se. They can be filled, but my preference is always for the traditional cake. Chef John Folse's recipe is closer to the king cake I am used to. The filled ones were too much like danish. John Folse is one of my go to people for recipes of South Louisiana. Another reliable source for a recipe would be our own Marcelle Bienvenu. Maybe she will post on this topic.

[TAPrice]

Here is something I didn't expect: the Walgreens on Tchoup is selling Antoine's king cakes. They've got both filled and plain. Can't say if the other Walgreens have them as well, but they might.

Antoine's, which used to be on Freret before the storm and is now in Gretna (or maybe that Gretna location was already open), always pops up on everyone's list of best king cakes. I've been to the bakery in Gretna, but not during Carnival season. Perhaps today I'll walk over to Walgreen's and report back on the king cake.

And a warning about another king cake. Avoid the terrible cakes sold at PJ's at all costs. I got one for my office last week. It claimed to be filled (don't even start--filled was the only option). Instead, it seemed to have been soaked in way too much almond extract. On top of that, there was an inch thick pool of icing in the center. Yuck. I can't remember the bakery's name that made this abomination, but it was in Slidell. Shame on PJ's for not selling better products. Of course, you can hardly expect a chain owned by some businessmen in Atlanta to get king cakes right.

[TAPrice]

I walked over the Walgreens to test an Antoine's king cake. The cake I got was filled. Foolishly, I assumed it would be filled with cream cheese. Turns out that it had a few pockets of yellow, lemonish goo. Despite that, I thought the case was pretty good. Or, as my wife said, "Not bad for a king cake."

I'm still sticking with Haydel's, which is good. Period.

[HungryC]

Langenstein's unfilled king cake is pretty good...just a ribbon of cinnamon folded into the braids.

Reportedly the Tastee Doughnuts by Transcontinental & West Esplanade makes the old-style McKenzie's king cake--you know, the dry kind that goes stale in a day. Good for dipping in coffee, but now supplanted by the sticky-sugary-borderline-gross confections that are closer to overgrown danish than to the king cake lineage.

If you can get your hands on a cinnamon pecan king cake from Cajun Pecan House in Cut Off, it's a treat. More bready, though filled. But the filling complements the taste & texture of the cake, rather than overwhelming it with goo.