Louisiana's King Cake Game is Strong

The king cakes of your childhood, or even just five years ago, are a thing of the past. This pastry has been upgraded, reinvented and made savory by Louisiana’s most creative culinarians – and it’s created a competitive environment, which has spurred parties where the guests vote on their favorites. We visited a few members who are testing the boundaries on flavors and ingredients.
 
Bananas Foster King Cake
Thee Heavenly Donut, Baton Rouge
This king cake is made of cinnamon doughnut dough that's deep fried, filled with a banana-rum pudding and topped with pecan pralines.
 
Boudin King Cake
Bourque's Supermarket, Port Barre
This St. Landry Parish grocery store offers a boudin and pepper jack cheese stuffed king cake that's topped with cane syrup, pepper jelly, cracklin and jalapenos. They kind of have to put cracklin on it-- Port Barre is home to The Cracklin Festival, for heaven’s sake!
 
Crawfish & Goat Cheese King Cake
Cavan, New Orleans
This king cake by Chef Nathan Richard is filled with delicious Louisiana crawfish and goat cheese and topped with cream cheese, pepper jelly, crab fat sugar and for the extremely adventurous, you can add Cajun (bowfin) caviar.
 
The Elvis King Cake 
Cochon Butcher, New Orleans
This king cake is filled with peanut butter, banana and topped with house-cured bacon, marshmallow and traditional Mardi Gras sprinkles. In place of the traditional small plastic “baby,” all of Chef Scales’ cakes contain a petite pink pig as their signature “baby.”
 
The ZULU King Cake 
Atwood Bakery, Alexandria
This king cake is made of brioche dough with a German chocolate filling and topped with a layer of fudge icing and toasted coconut.
 
Do you have a king cake we need to know about? Snap a pic and send a description to communications@lra.org and we’ll share it on the LRA’s Instagram!

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