Despite all its hardships, New Orleans will celebrate Carnival this year. The celebration started January 6th and ends this Tuesday on what is known in English as Fat Tuesday and in French as Mardi Gras. The day after Mardi Gras is Lent, when Christians, especially Catholics, have a 40-day period of prayer and fasting until Easter Sunday.
I have never lived in New Orleans, but growing up in Memphis, The Big Easy, being within driving distance, was a favorite weekend getaway destination for many Memphians, so we knew all the traditions. I remember my first Mardi Gras away from the South. My husband and I had just moved to San Diego after our wedding. I was working at the University of California, San Diego and was always bringing in fattening goodies to the office – either something I had cooked or had picked up at the grocery store. When Mardi Gras rolled around, I went looking for a King Cake.
The King Cake is Mardi Gras tradition and each year, hundreds of thousands of cakes are eaten at Mardi Gras parties worldwide. You might say, the King Cake is the centerpiece of any good Mardi Gras party. The tradition of the King Cake came to New Orleans with the early French settlers, around 1870. The King Cake is usually made from three strips of cinnamon dough, braided into a circle. The sugary toppings are Mardi Gras colors: Purple representing justice, Gold representing power, and Green representing faith. The real treat is the “baby.” Baked within each cake is a small, plastic baby, representing baby Jesus. The person who finds the baby in their piece of cake is said to be rewarded with good luck throughout the coming year. That person is also responsible for bringing the King Cake to next year’s party. Originally, other objects like beans and coins were placed in the cake, but, in the mid-1900s, the baby became a symbol of the Holy Day.
As fun as this sounds and as hodgepodge a city as San Diego is, there was unfortunately no King Cake to be found. In fact, I had to inform co-workers exactly what the King Cake was and its history in relation to the Mardi Gras celebration. Therefore, I decided to cook my own. Tune in to the next blog for that recipe!