King Cake Season in New Orleans: Bakeries and Traditions

King cake season in New Orleans opens on Twelfth Night, January 6, and runs until Mardi Gras. In that stretch bakeries sell a ring of sweet dough with a plastic baby hidden inside, and offices, schools and families take turns buying one. Pick a bakery, taste a flavor you have not tried and keep notes.

When is king cake season in New Orleans?

The season starts on Twelfth Night and ends on Mardi Gras, which moves each year because it is tied to Easter. That makes the season short in some years and long in others. A bakery that sells king cake all winter is feeding a calendar, not a menu, so the best days to shop are the first weeks, before the busiest weekends of Carnival.

Plan ahead for the last few days. If a particular cake matters to you, buy it early in the season and freeze nothing: king cake is best on the day you bring it home.

What is the king cake baby tradition?

The baby is a small plastic figure baked into or pushed into the cake. Whoever finds it in their slice is expected to bring the next king cake, and in many offices that person is also the host of the next party. It is a simple way to keep a season of gatherings going, and it explains why king cake turns up at work on a Friday.

Cut the cake into thin slices and check before you serve young children, because the baby is small and hard. Many bakeries now hand it over in a bag instead of baking it in, so you can hide it yourself. Ask when you order.

Which king cake bakeries in New Orleans are worth a trip?

These five were named in both a city tourism guide and a local magazine's king cake roundup. Flavors and ordering rules change every year, so check each bakery before you go.

• Hubig's Pies turns its pie flavors into king cakes, with fillings such as custard and Dutch apple beside the classic cinnamon and cream cheese.
• Gracious Bakery + Café is known for a king cake kit you finish at home and for the French almond galette de rois.
• La Boulangerie sells a traditional cinnamon king cake and a galette des rois with almond cream, so you can compare the two styles at one counter.
• A Mid-City bakery of more than a century lists nine varieties of king cake, including cheese and apple, which makes it a good place to compare flavors beyond cinnamon.
• Manny Randazzo's King Cakes in Metairie is a classic pick for a traditional cake, with flavors such as strawberry cream cheese and pecan praline.

Another bakery worth knowing is Bywater Bakery, which both sources list with flavors that go beyond cinnamon. Every name here is a starting point for a tasting, not a verdict.

What are the main king cake flavors?

The traditional king cake is a braided or ring-shaped brioche-style dough, brushed with icing and topped with sugar in purple, green and gold. Those colors stand for justice, faith and power. From there the flavors branch out: cinnamon is the baseline, cream cheese is the most common filling, and pecan praline, strawberry, apple and custard are all easy to find.

French-style bakeries add the galette des rois, a flaky pastry with almond cream that is the Twelfth Night cake in France. Taste one beside a Louisiana ring and you can see how the same date produced two different desserts.

How do you plan Twelfth Night to Mardi Gras food?

A good plan is one king cake a week. Buy a traditional cake in the first week, a bakery specialty in the second and a French galette near the end, so you taste the range without eating three cakes in one day. Pair a slice with coffee, and share the rest with whoever is nearest.

Between the cakes, the season is also a time for gumbo, red beans and po-boys. The Mardi Gras day food guide covers parade day itself, and the beignets and cafe au lait guide is the right stop for a sweet breakfast.

How do you rate and remember each king cake?

Rate each flavor on its own. In the Mosey app only the place and stars are needed, but "Rate each dish too" is where a king cake note becomes useful: name the flavor, say whether the dough was moist or dry, and add a line about the icing. Tags such as Bakery or Pastries help you sort later.

If you ate the cake with friends, tag them in a rating so they can add their own take on the same slice. A list called King cake tasting keeps the bakeries you liked in one place for next year.

Where next in the city?

If you are saving a sweet list for the whole year, the praline and dessert list guide is the next stop, and the food calendar continues after Mardi Gras with St. Joseph's Day altars and then Jazz Fest food. The season starts in December with Reveillon dinners. The New Orleans hub lists every page for the city, and the US food guides cover the rest.

Take the Mosey app on your next king cake run, rate each flavor by the dish and keep the bakeries on a list for next season.