A Cake Fit For Kings

Since the start of the new year, I have probably eaten 47 slices of king cake. I know, I know - high cholesterol, diabetes, cardiac arrest, yada yada yada - but I can't help myself. At least 3 times per week, sometimes twice in a single day, someone shows up at the office with a king cake. That's on top of the king cakes which are omnipresent at every birthday, wedding shower, funeral, and bris that I get invited to. How can a guy say no to a piece of king cake in celebration of circumcision?

But even though I have eaten an alarming number of slices of king cake, I honestly have not sampled the spectrum of species from that many different bakeries. Perhaps king cakes are similar to snowballs in that location plays a major role? Case in point, the above classic king cake from McKenzie's, now sold by Tastee Donuts, covered in purple, green, and gold granulated sugar While this is the king cake of my youth and always my first one of the season, it just never tastes as good as I remember.

At the opposite end from the McKenzie's classic, we have this shimmering specimen from Sucre, who started baking king cakes for the first time this year. The glaze on this cake is so stunning that you might be hesitant with your knife, but then you would be missing what's inside...

... and that would be an extremely light pastry filled with a thin layer of whipped cream cheese. I usually despise filled king cakes (too gloppy), but the minimal smear of cream cheese in this one is in perfect balance with the paper thin layers of pastry. This is probably the best king cake that I have eaten so far this year.

I'm still a sucker for Manny Randazzo's, which is better than Randazzo's Camellia City in my opinion. Haydel's makes a good king cake, but the combination of icing and granulated sugar throws me off; I prefer one or the other but not both. Antoine's is always welcome as an afternoon snack.

I still have quite a few king cakes on my list to try: Hi-Do Bakery on the wild wild Westbank, the not-so-sweet goat cheese and apple king cake from New Orleans Cake Cafe, the true classic galette des rois from La Boulangerie. So many cakes, so few inches to spare in the waistband of my suit pants. A little help, dear readers, if you wouldn't mind.