Beech Tree News Network

My son-in-law, Thomas, is a man after my own heart, when it comes to pastries, anyway.  He and I are of the opinion that when you put dough with sugar, only good things can come of the combination.  When I went to house sit for them a few weeks ago, he left a King Cake on the counter for me.  For those of you who don’t know, a King Cake is a pastry most often associated with Mardi Gras in New Orleans, albeit the pastry has a much older history.  

Mardi Gras, like most big celebrations during the age of the pandemic, was canceled this year.   According to the Times-Picayune, that I picked up in the kids’ driveway, this has happened a total of 14 times since its inception on February 24th, 1857.

The good times didn’t roll from February 1862 through February1865, due to the American Civil War.  During the Reconstruction period in 1875, the celebration was canceled once again due to threats by white-supremacist groups.

In 1879, there was a yellow fever outbreak—more than 4,000 New Orleanians died—and the parades were diminished to a handful of floats. 

1918 brought WWI and the cancelation of yet another Carnival celebration, although the subsequent cancelation wouldn’t be for reasons you might expect.  New Orleans Mayor Martin Behrman issued the following explanation: “…masking of every kind and character will be strictly prohibited during that period in New Orleans (Mardi Gras).  The registration is deemed essential because of the war and the opportunity…masking would afford enemy aliens and other evil disposed persons to commit crime while thus disguised.”  Long story, short—he didn’t want enemy infiltrators running around in masks.

The Spanish flu of 1919 shut down the celebration, as did WWII (1942 – 1945) and the Korean War in 1951.

In 1979, a police union strike brought everything to a screeching halt that February.  The powers that be decided it wouldn’t be wise to have that many people gathered on Bourbon Street without police protection—a wise decision (The Times-Picayune, The New Orleans Advocate, February 21, 2021).

That brings us to the pandemic cancellation of 2021 and the King Cake on the counter, waiting to be enjoyed.  

King Cakes are thought to have originated in Old World France and Spain during the Middle Ages and were associated with Epiphany (the manifestation of the Christ child to the Three Kings).  In New Orleans, King Cakes start showing up in January, with a sharp rise in sales as Mardi Gras approaches in February.  Because the cakes represent the Three Kings and the Christ child, a plastic baby is inserted into the cake at an undisclosed place after the cake is baked and before the cake is decorated (Mardigrasneworleans.com).

If you are lucky enough to get the piece of the cake that contains the baby, you are “King” for a day.  My Louisiana in-laws offer a different twist on the tradition.  They assign whoever gets the baby the task of buying the cake for the next Mardi Gras.

The cake itself is a wonderful pastry dough, shaped into a crown-like ring, baked then decorated with the colors of Mardi Gras—purple, green and gold.  In New Orleans, there is one name synonymous with King Cake—Randazzo.  In 1965 Manuel Randazzo, Sr., along with his father and brothers, opened Randazzo Hilan Bakery in Chalmette, Louisiana.  It was on this site that the first Randazzo King Cake was sold.

The cake was made from a not-so-secret family recipe which Manny Randazzo, Manuel’s son, took with him when he opened his own bakery in 1992.  Manny’s uncle, Lawrence, filed a lawsuit against Manny for using the family name without compensating the original shop.  The lawsuit was later dropped, and Manny still sells King Cakes at his original location in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans.

Manny did get his comeuppance, however, when his wife, Dianne, filed for divorce and later opened her own bakery, Claudia’s King Cakes, selling—you guessed it—the Randazzo family recipe King Cake.  Manny tried to stop her, but she reminded him she had not signed a non-compete agreement—a move she probably learned from him—so there was yet a third bakery selling the Randazzo cakes.

The King Cake I found on the counter at Nikki’s and Thomas’ house came from Nonna Randazzo’s in Covington, where they live.  That location is owned by Lawrence’s daughter and her husband (nola.com).

I’ve had a King Cake from every location, and they are all superb, probably because they are all made from the same “secret” recipe.  You don’t have to go to the New Orleans area to sample a Randazzo King Cake.  They will ship one straight to your door, and believe me, it’s worth the shipping cost.