It’s King Cake season. Here’s an easy recipe, or where to find them in Lexington

Thanks to a homesick Cajun, Magee’s got into the King Cake business over 20 years ago.

Beverly Higgins recalls that a regular customer came in one day and asked if they could make King Cakes. A New Orleans native, he had been ordering them for years but got “really tired of paying the shipping fee.” Higgins was willing to try. “I had one shipped up here and it was eight inches in diameter, and I was shocked – with the shipping it was around 30 bucks.” And all you got was one baby with it, no beads.

“So that’s how we got involved,” Higgins said. The business blossomed with orders coming in for a dozen or more King Cakes from all around Central Kentucky. “It was amazing,” Higgins said, and before too long other bakeries were celebrating Mardi Gras, too.

A little background is in order for those unfamiliar with King Cakes, a tradition in New Orleans almost since its early days.

King Cake, Matt Haines explains in his newly published “The Big Book of King Cake,” came to New Orleans in the 18th century with Catholic settlers from France and Spain. Those countries had inherited the celebration and the cake from Ancient Rome’s Saturnalia festival where cakes were baked with a single bean inside. Revelers, trying to soak up the wine they’d imbibed, grabbed a piece of cake and the lucky one who got the slice with the bean was named queen or king of the day.

The party and the cake survived in a different form when Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire. It became a celebration that stretches in New Orleans from the Epiphany on Jan. 6, when the three kings visited the baby Jesus, to Mardi Gras. Almost everywhere else King Cake is reserved for the days leading up to and including Mardi Gras. Haines cites a couple of theories about why they’re called King Cakes: the circular form “emulates a crown,” honoring the three kings, or the circle symbolizes a desire “for unity among the world’s Christians.”

The idea for his book originated one year when Haines decided to try to sample every King Cake made in New Orleans. “I didn’t succeed but I did eat more than 80 different kinds,” he writes, and got the idea for a book to celebrate the New Orleans tradition in all its variety.

Although called “cake,” these are not your traditional layered offerings. Instead, the sweet, yeast-raised dough is treated like a jelly roll that’s filled and then joined at the ends to form a circle or oblong. (Some recipes, like the one here, divide the dough up and braid it before forming the circle.) When they come out of the oven they are decorated with icing or sugar (or both) in the Mardi Colors of gold, purple and green.

“We make them super festive,” says Martine Holzman, of the pastry shop that carries her name. Holzman grew up in France celebrating the Epiphany with a different kind of cake but learned about King Cakes when she lived in New Orleans a few decades back. At that time she wasn’t in the baking business. “I was really a consumer of King Cakes,” she said.

As at Magee’s, King Cakes joined Martine’s lineup because of customer requests and have become a popular item, with two fillings, cinnamon and pistachio.

Higgins said that for years Magee’s made lots of different varieties but eventually “it became too hard to tell them apart,” after they had been decorated with the brightly colored sugars. Now for the most part they make two varieties, cinnamon and a filling like that used in their cheese Danish.

Fred Wohlstein at Donut Days said they learned about King Cakes at a bakery convention and brought them back to Lexington 25 to 30 years ago. “In a non-COVID year we’ll make several hundred,” he said. Theirs are placed in a special presentation box that includes some of the history of King Cake, as well as a baby, beads and a coin. Donut Days offers four varieties: cinnamon, cream cheese, cherry and apple. “It’s a shot in the arm,” for the bakery business during the traditional winter slump when people are working off pounds and credit card debt, he said.

Higgins agrees that King Cake time is a bright spot dispelling the winter gloom. “It’s a fun time of year.”

Local bakery guide: Where to find a King Cake in Lexington

Here is a list of Lexington bakeries that sell King Cakes for Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, the start of Lent, which is Tuesday, March 1.

▪ Magee’s began making King Cakes around 2000. The 14-inch round cake costs $25.

They will have some in the shop but better to order ahead to be sure you get one.

▪ Donut Days Bakery has been making King Cakes for almost 30 years. They come in two sizes, a quarter sheet cake that serves 12-16 people for $23.99 and a full-sheet cake size for $85. Both will be available in the shop but, particularly for the larger one, pre-orders are recommended.

▪ Caramanda’s has been making King Cakes for about 15 years, typically only with a cinnamon filling. Their 14-by-10-inch cake costs $25, comes with a baby, beads and colorful coins and needs to be ordered, preferably 72 hours in advance.

▪ Martine’s Pastries will be in its fourth year of offering King Cakes. Hers are 10 inches, cost $29 and come with a baby and beads. They will have some in the shop for walk-ins but “strongly suggest,” ordering in advance to secure a King Cake.

Recipe: How to make a King Cake

It’s easy to go online and find a King Cake recipe and bake one at home, but here’s the “basic” cinnamon filled version developed by the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute included in “The Big Book of King Cake.”

Cinnamon Filling

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ½ egg (reserve the other half)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Melt the butter
2. Pour the melted butter into a bowl and mix with brown sugar until well combined.
3. Add the flour, cinnamon and honey. Mix well.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
5. Cover and place in the refrigerator.

King Cake Dough

• 2½ cups bread flour
• ¾ teaspoon yeast, instant or rapid rise
• 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup butter, soft
• 1 ½ eggs
• ½ teaspoon honey
• 2/3 cup milk

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix using a stand mixer on low speed for four minutes.
2. Mix ingredients on medium speed for about six minutes. To check if ready, tear off a thin piece and stretch it thin enough to see light coming through without the dough tearing.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes to begin rising.
4. Transfer to a floured surface and roll into a one-inch thick rectangle.
5. Move the dough to a tray or baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in refrigerator over night.
6. When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator and let sit 30 minutes then roll into a rectangle approximately 20 by 8 inches.
7. Spread the cinnamon filling on the rectangle and fold in half lengthwise.
8. Cut into three even strips lengthwise.
9. Stretch the strips to 24 inches each, braid the 3 pieces, then shape into a circle or oval.
10. Line a baking sheet and place the cake on it.
11. Cover and set aside in a warm place for about 90 minutes, until it has doubled in size.
12. Bake at 325 degrees until golden brown – about 12 to 15 minutes in a convection oven; 20 minutes in a regular oven.

The Icing

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• ¼ cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Sugar and food coloring as desired.
• Small plastic baby

Instructions

1. Combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla, mix until smooth and set aside.
2. To make colored sugars, put sugar into three bowls – one each for purple, green and gold. Start with a few drops of coloring, adding more until you get the desired color sugar.
3. Once the cake has cooled, insert the baby into the bottom.
4. Drizzle icing over the cake then sprinkle sugar, alternating the colors.