King Cakes!

If you're from North Carolina, you may not know what a king cake is. My Louisiana friends sure know about them! They appear in bakeries along the Gulf Coast every year, starting on January 6. They vanish from the shelves after Mardi Gras.

A king cake isn't actually a cake, it's a ring of bread. A traditional king cake is a brioche dough filled with a butter/cinammon/brown sugar mixture, although more modern ones tend to have cream cheese or pie filling in them. The top is sprinkled with granulated sugar that has been dyed in the Mardi Gras Colors of purple, green and gold. A small plastic baby doll is inserted into the cake after it's baked.

In offices all along the Gulf Coast, someone will bring a king cake to work tomorrow. The tradition is that whoever gets the piece with the baby in it has to buy the next one. This goes on until Ash Wednesday, when we all repent our fattening sins and diet until next year.

I've discovered two bakeries in the area that make king cakes: La Farm in Cary and Great Harvest Bread Company in Chapel Hill. La Farm has a counter at all of the Triangle area Whole Foods stores, so you might even find a King Cake there (or have the bakery manager order one for you). I haven't tried either of them yet, so I can't tell you how they compare to Randazzo's or Gambino's. But those require a trip to New Orleans, or about $40 to have one shipped here. I'll bake my own before I spend that kind of money.