The New Orleans food scene has brought foodies near and far such gastronomic revelations as jambalaya and yakamein (aka the ultimate hangover cure). Today, we’re deep-diving into another iconic NOLA dish — a hallmark of Mardi Gras alongside beaded necklaces, masquerade masks, and a sazerac or two (or more). We could, of course, only be talking about the king cake. So, what’s the deal with the plastic baby stuffed inside?
The “king” name comes from the Biblical story of the Three Wise Men who visited the manger on the night of Jesus’s birth. (This event is also known as the Epiphany.) However, long before the advent of the Christian religion, pagan Saturnalia celebrators in ancient Rome were placing a single fava bean inside their proto-king cakes as a symbol of the god of the harvest, bringing luck and fertility to the bean-finder.
King cakes didn’t arrive from France to America until the 1870s. The multicolored cake evolved from French settlers’ galette des rois, which didn’t include colored sugar and was stuffed with almond frangipane. During the late 1800s, the NOLA-based Twelfth Night Revelers borrowed the European tradition of hiding a single bean in the cake, and whoever got the slice with the bean stuffed inside would be ceremoniously crowned the “king” or “queen” of the party. It’s unclear exactly when the bean changed to a miniature plastic baby figurine, but most historians seem to point to baker-slash-owner Donald Entringer Sr. of McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppes in Louisiana.
If the baby seems pretty random, that’s because it is
When Donald Entringer Sr. (ostensibly) first added the babies to the cake in the late 1940s, it wasn’t a nod to Three Kings Day and infant Jesus; rather, it was a happy coincidence. The baker wanted to load his king cakes with small prizes or trinkets instead of boring beans, and miniature baby figurines happened to be what was available at a nearby store and small enough to be physically stuffed into a cake. According to an alternate origin story, Entringer was earlier sold a box of baby miniatures by a traveling salesman, so he had them on hand, and the figurines were originally made of ceramic. (More than a few tooth injuries were allegedly reported before the switch to plastic was made.) Either way, foodies of all belief systems can get down with a secular king cake and its fun, quirky prize inside.
This festive annual treat is customarily enjoyed during Carnival season, which lasts between January 6 (aka Twelfth Night) and Fat Tuesday (the day before Lent). The lucky discovery of a baby in your slice comes with good fortune and prosperity for the year, and (with great power comes great responsibility) also the task of hosting next year’s party and buying (or making) the next king cake.
How to insert the good-luck baby into a king cake
King cakes are multicolored ring-shaped desserts made from not-super-sweet brioche. The Bundt cake meets Danish-style pastry is stuffed with cinnamon, wrapped into a wreath shape, and topped with a gooey glaze, not unlike Danish kringles. Other preparations use a cream cheese filling, chocolate, or unexpected ingredients like bananas foster sauce. To decorate, king cakes are dusted with dyed sugar in block stripes of the official Mardi Gras color trio of gold, green, and purple. This eye-catching decoration also bears symbolic importance: gold for power, green for faith, and purple for justice.
Pro tip: The baby doesn’t get inserted into the cake until after it has finished baking and cooled off; that plastic will melt in the oven. To hide the point of entry, the figurine gets inserted through the soft bottom of the cake, and happily, a 30-pack of plastic mini babies by the Shaoqinlin brand runs for $8.88 on Amazon — that’s enough for years’ worth of king cakes. When purchasing a store-bought king cake, the plastic baby is typically stowed in the cake box (keeping the dessert plastic-free and food-safe), and the buyer is tasked with inserting it into the cake after bringing it home. To avoid accidentally slicing through the baby while cutting the cake (yikes), the figurine can be inserted into one chosen piece post-slice.
