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King Cake 2022 – week 2

I went 3 whole days without King Cake!

2022-7: Batture Chantilly – this is from a small cafe in Jefferson Parish and is not what I would call chantilly. It’s closer to the Maurice’s Pontchatoula strawberry but smaller AND just as delicious. The king cake is split and filled with whipped cream (and maybe a little pastry creme) along with strawberries and blueberries. A lovely refreshing cake.

Batture Chantilly – forgot to take a pic before slicing

2022-8: Haydel’s traditional – Bro2 picked this up and brought it to Mom’s house so I got a slice. Haydel’s is almost always good and this was delicous.

Haydel’s traditional

2022-9 unknown traditional – I stopped by a friend’s house and someone had dropped off this cake that he had purchased at a farmer’s market. It had cream cheese based icing and was good but a little too sweet for me.

2022-10 Mae’s Bakeshop mini king cake monkey bread – another item I sampled at a friend’s house. My mom used to make a MG monkey bread so I was excited to try this version. It was very moist and had a rum kick!

Mmmm monkey bread

2022-11 Brennan’s bananas foster – Where’s the banana? Other people are loving this version but it was not my favorite.

2022-12 Robert’s traditional – a solid choice for a grocery store king cake.

Robert’s traditional

Jeez! 6 more varieties this week. I’m going to go back to my max pandemic weight at this rate.

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King Cake 2022 – pt1

King Cake Hub is back for 2022 so I stopped in on Epiphany and purchased

2022-1: Hi Do traditional/plain – Soft and slightly sweet. The perfect start to a 7+ week king cake season! Picked up from King Cake Hub

Gracious Bakery & Hi Do king cakes

2022-2: Gracious Bakery almond queen cake – Queen because it’s not decorated with purple, green and gold, I guess. The icing was just a bit too sweet for me but the almond filling was delicious. Picked up from King Cake Hub

2022-3: Gracie’s Bakery apple havarti cake – My niece brought this fancy version to the memorial we had for my dad. I love the Gracie’s recipe which has no preservatives and is a yeast forward dough. The apples had a nice bite to them and the harvarti made for a richer cake. We set up like a picnic around the family tomb and thoroughly confused the tourists so that’s a plus.

Gracie’s Bakery Apple havarti with honey glaze

2022-4: Gracie’s Bakery traditional – I ordered a traditional from this yummy home bakery and gobbled up the small within 2 days. Love the cinnamon and the hit of almond… and that the gold baby was baked inside.

Gracie’s Bakery traditional

2022-5: NOCCA/Cake Cafe apple goat cheese – I always heard about the Cake Cafe king cakes but never sampled one until now. I always thought the icing looked like too much (I know I know the piles of sugar are also too much but it’s what I grew up with), but I was wrong. The icing is delicious. I was not a fan of the goat cheese because I thought it overpowered the pastry; I am in the minority with this opinion. Also I’m not sure what happened but it seems like the cakes were not properly risen so they were very dense. Ordered via King Cake Hub and delivered via Door Dash to my work.

NOCCA / Cake Cafe with 2 fillings

2022-6: NOCCA/Cake Cafe raspberry cream cheese – I liked this one much more that the apple goat. The raspberry was nice and tart and made a nice balance with the cream cheese and the dough. Again this cake did not seem properly risen so maybe it was just the batch? This is a cake created by a culinary program of students so isn’t as consistent as a commercial bakery. Ordered via King Cake Hub and delivered via Door Dash to my work.

That’s kind of a lot for week 1!

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Whoops

I meant to post about king cakes last year. And I meant to post about my housefloat. But I was two weeks late with the first post and then never posted again in 2021.

Like many of us, I was fighting to keep my equilibrium, to stay employed, and to process my grief. Grief about our collective inability to think about others in the middle of a pandemic and grief over losing my father in early January.

Hopefully, I’ll do better this year.

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King Cake 2021 – pt. 1

2021 is getting away from me. We’re already 2 full weeks into King Cake season and I haven’t posted. Oops. And I have consumed a *lot* of king cake since the 6th. Hopefully I have photo evidence of all the types.

2021-1: Gracie’s Bakery traditional – My niece dropped off a king cake late on the 5th and I stayed up until midnight to eat it. AND I finished it the next day. Remember any king cake is a single serving if you believe in yourself.

2021-2: SugerLove traditional – Picked this up for my Mom’s house from King Cake Hub. It won a people’s choice award. It was fine but a little too sweet for me.

2021-3: Bittersweet Confections cinnamon – Also picked up from King Cake Hub, this is a really good small cake with a rich cinnamon taste.

2021-4: Hi Do bavarian cream – Hi Do is one of my top bakeries, but I wasn’t in love with the Bavarian Cream this year. Slight change in the recipe? Or me having an off day?

2021-5: Doung Phong almond – a friend dropped off a huge chunk of this to my house. I haven’t been as big a fan of the DP king cakes over the last few years, but the almond is amazing!

2021-6 & 7: Hi Do plain and cream cheese – My coworker couldn’t decide which one to bring in so he bought both. Hi Do plain is one of my top king cakes, just simple good brioche. And while I’m not usually a fan of cream cheese this was a nice filling and not gloopy.

2021-8: Bywater Bakery traditional – Another king cake delivered to Mom (and purchased at King Cake Hub). She said it tastes like another piece.

2021-9: Brennan’s Black & Gold – OMG. First by my family’s definition, this is not a king cake but it is amazingly delicious. It’s a chocolate brioche! I may have met my pastry soulmate. And the ganache on top is like eating a chocolate truffle. Purchased at King Cake Hub and so rich/yummy.

Phew… there was one duplicate in there of another Bittersweet Cinnamon which was left at my house.

Stay tuned for pics of my HouseFloat!

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King Cake Tally – 2020: Week 6

I’m to the point in the season where I’m not really sure what I’ve eaten… or what day it is. And it’s also the point in the carnival season where my king cake numbers typically go down but the parade count is WAY up! Gotta work all that pastry off somehow…

2020-21 was a homemade King Cake made by a coworker. Instead of a baby, he put a Susan B. Anthony dollar in it! (sterilized of course). It was an interesting version with a boozy dried fruit glaze on top.

2020-22 was a blueberry from Bywater Bakery… which was rich and tasty but somehow isn’t really working with the dough.

The Hi-Do bavarian cream was a duplicate this week.

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King Cake Tally 2020 – Week 5

I had 2 duplicates this week. Sweet delicious duplicates… another Caluda’s traditional slice (2020-1) and another slice from Tiger Bakery (2020-8).

2020-17 And then one of my awesome friend’s dropped off a Duong Phong cream cheese king cake last Wednesday which my coworkers and parents got to share with me. It was tasty but as usual the filling was a bit much for me so I only ate part of it.

2020 – 18 wow! This is the cannoli king cake from Nor-Joe’s. It’s an amazing mashup of the two treats. Rich and delicious but not too sweet.

2020 – 19 & 20 I didn’t snap photos. But I was able to taste small slices of Bywater Bakery traditional and Bittersweet Confections chocolate filled. Both were delicious.

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King Cake Tally 2020 – Week 4

2020 – 14 and my first disappointment. I’m not big on filled king cakes because the filling is often poor quality. Yep. This pecan praline filled cake from Rouses was overly sweet and left a bad taste. Plus the filling was out of proportion with the dough. Better luck next time.

2020 – 15 while none of the Randazzo’s style king cakes are my favorite. This was fresh and cinnamony… With too much icing for my taste. But I bought it while waiting for Chewbacchus to parade and it was gone by the e d of the night.

2020-16 behold the beauty that is the simple HiDo traditional! I picked this up yesterday from the King Cake Hub and brought it to my parents. It was finished within hours. My Dad had 2 huge pieces so that helped. Fresh and light and not too sweet despite all the decorator sugar.

Continue reading →
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King Cake Tally 2020 – Week 3

2020-10 yum #10 was a McKenzie’s traditional from Tastee Donuts. For this cake location matters and my coworker purchased it from the Clearview and West Metairie store. The taste of my childhood but fresher. My office was on this one like a ravenous horde.

2020-11 yummy French style Galette des Rois from Gracious Bakery with a real porcelain feves. Delicious and light. The only negative was that one edge was slightly over baked but I ate it anyway.

2020-12 another coworker bought a bonus Galette des Rois from the NOCCA Bakery via King Cake Hub. I’ve had this one before but the satsuma flavor was more pronounced this time so extra tasty.

2020-13 Um. Wow! I’d been hearing how delicious Bywater Bakery’s king cakes were so I grabbed this one from King Cake Hub. I opted for the Chantilly cream as the baker originated that popular cake in New Orleans. The cream is amazing and this is so decadent that it’s morphing out of king cake territory. But still amazing.