It’s king cake season. Those four words don’t carry a lot of weight across 90 percent of this country, though in most of Louisiana and the majority of South Mississippi, things reach a fever pitch in and around bakeries this time of year.
There are readers of this weekly column from almost all the 50 states. For those who aren’t familiar with the Mardi Gras staple known as a king cake, here’s a quick primer. The king cake is believed to have first come to Louisiana around 1870. It’s a ring of bread — sometimes braided, many times filled with fruit and/or cream cheese and sometimes spiced with only cinnamon — that is covered with icing or frosting and decorated with the three colors of Mardi Gras — purple, green and gold. The season runs from Jan. 6 (Epiphany/Twelfth Night signifying the event when the three wisemen/kings brought gifts to the baby Jesus) through Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent).
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