The Cajun Cheesehead Celebrates Carnival, by Jack Caldwell
Greetings, everyone. Jack Caldwell here.
In case you didn’t know, we’re in the middle of the Carnival Season here in Bayou Country. Of course, Carnival is celebrated in much of the Christian world: Europe, North and South America, and parts of Africa and Asia. Many erroneously call the season “Mardi Gras,” but that phrase is actually French for “Fat Tuesday,” the day before Lent.
The Carnival Season begins each year on January 6, Epiphany, Three Kings’ Day, in the Western Christian church. In New Orleans, they begin on the Eve of Epiphany, Twelfth Night (the “twelfth day of Christmas”). The Eastern Christian church marks the beginning of Carnival as the day Christ was baptized in the Jordan River. Carnival ends on midnight Strove Tuesday (Mardi Gras), the eve of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Forty Days of Lent.
While the idea of Carnival parades began in Mobile, Alabama in 1711, by 1730 New Orleans, Louisiana was bringing the celebration to new levels. Today, Carnival and/or Mardi Gras Day is celebrated all along the Gulf Coast, from Galveston, Texas to Tampa, Florida.
Louisianans never let a season go without creating a food for it. The original French settlers brought their galette des rois and, like almost all dishes from the mother country, the people adapted it to changing tastes and available ingredients. The modern New Orleans King Cake keeps only the galette des rois’ round shape. It originally was favored with cinnamon and sugar, but now innovative bakers have stuffed their cakes with fruit jelly, cream cheese, pralines, chocolate, or a combination thereof. All are topped with purple, green, and gold icing, the colors of Mardi Gras, representing justice, power, and faith. The “baby” or “bean” inside means the one who finds it must bring a king cake to the next party.
Traditionally, king cake is only consumed during Carnival. Lately, green-and-white cakes are appearing for St. Patrick’s Day, red-white-and-blue cakes for the Fourth of July, and black-and-gold cakes for New Orleans Saints football watch parties.
You don’t have to travel down here to enjoy a king cake. Attached below is a link to a PDF of a tested recipe you can make at home. Try it!
Until next time, this has been the Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles.
It takes a real man to write historical romance, so let me tell you a story…
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That was interesting. I have saved the recipe and will have to try it sometime.
You know, it would have been very cruel to tell us about that wonderful cake and not provide the recipe. You are a southern gentleman, after all. Thanks for providing that recipe. It looks delicious. Enjoy your celebrations.
Thank you for sharing the recipe and the history of the season. Unfortunately I avoid sweets because of a medical condition but did bake a lot when younger. I will save the recipe and pass it on.
Lovely recipe! I remember the King Cake from your description in Crescent City but the detailed recipe helped a lot to bring it into reality. I might even try it this year. It seems still healthier than the Hungarian special Carnival (Farsang here, from the German word) food which has to be fried in oil…
That recipe looks delicious. Thanks for sharing it with us. I love anything flavoured with cinnamon.
Thanks for the history behind the Carnival Season. I didn’t realize that Carnival started on either the 12th Day of Christmas or Epiphany–which makes perfect sense from the viewpoint of the church calendar. As Anglicans, we celebrate Christmastide for twelve days and used to give our kids (now grown) a family gift on Epiphany and celebrate with a King’s Cake different from the ones you have in New Orleans, and has a coin rather than a bean baked into the cake.
Shrove Tuesday is Pancake Tuesday in our home even now. Although we don’t fast from eggs and dairy and thus don’t have to finish up these foods before Lent, we still love the idea of having pancakes for dinner, and we each choose something different to fast from during Lent (often it’s from technology of some sort). I love the season of Lent: the focus on Christ, the weekly Stations of the Cross, the fasting, the quiet contemplation, the sacrament of Confession (not required in Anglican Christianity, but our priest goes by this saying regarding Confession: “All may. None must, Some should.” 😉
Thank you again, Mr. Caldwell, for your lovely post.
Warmly,
Susanne 🙂
Thank you for this historical context.. Here in Portugal we only have from the Friday before Lent ‘till Carnival’s Tuesday. Wednesday is called “ Ashes Wednesday” and marks official Lent. Some Portuguese cities feel this is not time enough and start having carnival balls since January. And it seems there’s might be a historical reason not just they are carnival nuts.( we were invaded by the French sometimes , some of them did stay , we are very friendly and the weather is good). We also have he King’s cake but it’s eaten during Christmas