Whether or not you’re giving up anything for Lent, Mardi Gras is a day for enjoying, savoring, living a little bit larger than usual.
And in New Orleans, one of the traditions connected with the run-up to Lent is the king cake, even if that colorful and delicious treat actually started with an earlier holiday.
The king cake gets its name from Three Kings Day, or Epiphany, on January 6th.
It represents the day the three kings known as the Magi traveled to Bethlehem to bring gifts to baby Jesus.
The cake originally caught on in France, where it’s known as galette de rois, and Spain, where people call it rosca de reyes.
As these Europeans came to North America, they brought the king cake with them.
No surprise that New Orleans, which was founded by French settlers, became the American king cake capital.
The Louisiana version of the king cake became popular for the entire season between Three Kings Day and Mardi Gras.
And it amps up the sweetness and the color, with glaze and sugar in the three Mardi Gras colors (gold for power, green for faith and purple for justice).
Then there’s the surprise inside: in Europe that was usually a bean.
But in the 1940s, the owner of McKenzie’s bakery in New Orleans met a traveling salesman who had a surplus of tiny little baby dolls from France.
He suggested using those in place of the beans, and yes, they did get the blessing of the health department to bake them into the cakes.
So the king cake story starts with a holiday about bringing gifts to a baby and continues with miniature babies as gifts on another holiday.
This month in Janesville, Wisconsin, the Lincoln-Tallman Museum hosts the Gowns & Guns Exhibit.
Antique gowns from the 1830s to the 1920s, as well as antique firearms from the history of south central Wisconsin.
There’s got to be a story behind that combination.
The Tradition Behind The Mardi Gras King Cake (Southern Living)
Gowns & Guns Exhibit (Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau)