King cakes used to be easy. You waited — usually — until the start of Carnival season to get one, you argued about your favorites through the season and eventually you’d groan when yet another cake materialized in the office break room. You had one last slice on Fat Tuesday and that was that.
For New Orleans bakers, the rhythm was similarly reliable. Maybe they had a few variations in the product line, especially as filled king cakes grew popular, but generally each year saw the old reliable king cake recipes come out for a busy baking season.
But today, things are not so simple for bakers and for the New Orleans king cake eating public alike. That’s because the king cake has become another in a long line of local food traditions now up for rapid and vigorous reinterpretation. There has been a boom of new bakeries around town, and more restaurant pastry chefs are taking on the king cake too. Each one now faces a question previous generations would not necessarily have considered: Should they try to align with long-standing local king cake traditions or try to make a splash with something edgier?
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