My parents spent today in New Orleans and came back with a king cake!  They visited the famous Haydel’s bakery and had to choose from a huge variety of flavors- and finally settled on a german chocolate one with chocolate, nuts, and coconut.  It was very tasty!  Though I’ll admit that plain old king cake is probably my favorite.  In whatever flavor, it’s a bready sort of cake, topped with cream cheese icing and grainy sugars of yellow, purple, and green.

Normally king cakes are eaten during Mardi Gras (but New Orleans is somewhat perpetually in a state of Mardi Gras) and come with a plastic baby (Jesus) to hide.  But the ones from Haydel come with a little porcelain figure that changes every year.  This year’s is a little court jester– past ones have included a jazz musician, FEMA trailer (honor Katrina rescuers), and king.  We didn’t risk hiding it in the cake– can you imagine chomping down accidentally on a piece of porcelain?

I wished that I could have gone with them– I’ve been eager to visit New Orleans again– so my parents promised us a family weekend trip at the beginning of next month!

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