Heaven in a pastry

Ah, 2025 will be grand. How do I know? King cake.

I live in Louisiana, but I’m a transplant from up north who doesn’t fully understand this unique state.

I do understand king cake. Because yummy aids understanding, and king cake is yummy.

King cake is a pastry, often with cinnamon, that is heavily frosted in the Mardi Gras season’s colors of yellow, purple and green. By Louisiana custom, king cake shouldn’t be served until Epiphany (Jan. 6), although – sacrilege! – that’s not the norm everywhere.

Also, where bakeries’ liability lawyers permit, a tiny plastic baby is hidden inside each cake. If the baby’s in your slice, then you may get a prize. Or huzzahs. Or the expectation to buy and share a cake next year.

In a remarkable show of restraint, I ate my first slice only yesterday, a whole three days after Epiphany. I had scavenged it from my workplace breakroom.

If there’s a heaven, then it surely has king cake frosting.

Even better: with my first bite of my first king cake of 2025, I got the baby.