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| Mardi Gras King Cake |
We recently were treated to some fun Carnival activities in Shreveport, including visiting one of the city's most popular businesses this time of year — Lilah's. This family-owned business creates delicious king cakes, an essential element of Carnival and one of the Louisiana food groups (well, we think so).
These sugar-topped creations date back to France and the celebrations surrounding Twelfth Night, or Jan. 6, which is the beginning of the Carnival season. The king cake signifies the coming of the three wise men to the baby Jesus 12 days after his birth. Jan. 6 is also known as the Feast of the Epiphany or King's Day.
In Louisiana, we start enjoying king cakes on Jan. 6 at the start of Carnival and continue eating these decadent pastries through Mardi Gras, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. They come in various flavors and styles, some plain with only sugar toppings, some filled with goodness like fruit fillings or cream cheese. Some really adventurous, such as the boudin king cake and the peanut butter and chocolate. And some people have loads of fun with the tradition, such as Alky Therapy Daiquiris, which makes an 18-ounce King Cake Daiquiri complete with king cake slice, king cake cupcake, fleur de lis candy and king cake vodka.
King cakes traditionally included a small plastic baby (in earlier times it was a bean or a porcelain king) and whoever gets the baby in their slice of king cake must buy the next cake. Nowadays, because a few people were surprised to bite into a small plastic baby and some broke teeth, bakeries place the baby in the cake box and let you insert it yourself.
Want to see how it's done? We got an inside peek into how Lilah's makes their cakes. This small bakery produces 400-600 king cakes a day during Carnival, producing about 12,000 for the entire Carnival season! The family does so well during Carnival that it's now their only business.
Let us show you what we saw.
The round dough is put through a machine to flatten it out.
Mark places the dough on a table.
Julie adds two scoops of cream cheese filling.
The filling is flattened out and praline crumbles added.
The dough is rolled...
...and made into a circle.
Then brushed and placed into the ovens
to become pralines 'n' cream king cakes.
Lilah's can bake 100 king cakes in an hour.
Here's what they look like baked.
Buttercream icing goes on top.
Then sugar sprinkles
in Mardi Gras colors.
Babies are included. Beads too.
The final product.
Flavors run the gamut,
like this tiramisu.
Talk about good!!
Gluten-free king cakes are also available.
They taste more like a king cake scone.
Lilah's is run by Lisa and Sopan Tike
with help from their daughter Lila.
She wishes you all a very Happy Mardi Gras!
That was fascinating watching them make the King Cakes. And, yes, they should be a Louisiana staple. I'm still thinking of moving there for all of the food. :)
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