Time To Break Out the King Cake

Mardi Gras season is here, and that can mean only one thing: king cake. (Well, it could mean a lot of things, but this is a food blog, you know.) The king cake is a ring of twisted sweet bread topped with a trio of icings, in purple, green and gold to symbolize justice, faith and power, respectively. Aside from the carnival of colors, the king cake is known for the plastic baby hidden inside. Whoever ends up with the baby is crowned king or queen of the party. And who doesn’t like to be royalty for a while?

Central Market has been making king cake for years, for the days leading up to Fat Tuesday, which this year falls on February 21. In addition to the king cake, the Bakery department has introduced a new dessert for the season: galette des rois. The puff pastry cake filled with a lightly rum-flavored frangipane is the French version of the American king cake.

Like its American counterpart, galette des rois has a porcelain feve (trinket) hidden inside, and whoever unearths it is crowned king or queen—literally, as the cake includes a paper crown, too. Look for the galette des rois in our Bakery department until the end of January.