Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Robert St. John: Cakes Fit for a King

 It’s king cake season. Those four words don’t carry a lot of weight across 90% of this country. Though in most of Louisiana and the majority of South Mississippi things reach a fever pitch in and around bakeries during this time of year.

 

There are readers of this weekly column from almost all the 50 states. For those who aren’t familiar with the Mardi Gras staple known as a king cake, here’s a quick primer. The king cake is believed to have first come to Louisiana around 1870. It’s a ring of bread— sometimes braided, many times filled with fruit and/or cream cheese and sometimes spiced with only cinnamon— that is covered with icing or frosting and decorated with the three colors of Mardi Gras, purple, green, and gold. The season runs from January 6th (Epiphany/Twelfth Night signifying the event when the three wisemen/kings brought gifts to the baby Jesus) through Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent). 

To an outsider the king cake is a puzzling pastry. “What’s up with all the styles and versions?” “Why is there a small baby sitting on top of my cake?” “Why purple, green, and gold?” “What’s up with the knife staying in the box?” “Why are people standing in long lines to get a colored cake?” Most of those questions are answered once one has tried a well-prepared king cake. 

Here are some— mostly accurate— explanations.

The answer to the plastic baby is simple— it represents the baby Jesus and is usually on top of the cake these days. For most of king cake history a bean or nice trinket was baked inside the cake for good luck. In the 1950s a New Orleans bakery started putting a small porcelain baby inside of their king cakes. That tradition caught on and most use a baby these days, though the baby is now on top because people were accidentally eating the baby and bakeries didn’t want the hassle of a lawsuit. The baby— agnostics say it’s for luck— is no longer porcelain and made of plastic in some far off factory that must be making millions of them.

There’s also the tradition of whomever gets the baby must buy the next king cake, but now that the baby is on top and not inside, some say it’s there for good luck.

The interwebs are filled with conflicting reasons why the official Mardi Gras colors are purple, green, and gold. You can research it and choose which version you like best. I’m going with purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power. No emails, please.

For most of my life, I wasn’t a fan of king cake. Most of them are dry, overly sweet, excessively sugared, and often made with fruit fillings from a can. Though for the past several years I have been working on developing and opening a bakery. In this part of the world any respectable bakery should offer king cakes during the Mardi Gras season, therefore my attitudes have changed. 

I knew what I liked in a king cake: Soft, eggy, buttery bread, a light fruit and cream cheese filling, very minimal sugar on top, and frosting that is just sweet enough. The problem is that most king cakes don’t fit that description. Most commercial king cakes are the exact opposite— dry, hard bread, overly sweet fillings, and overly sugared toppings with way too much food coloring. Last year I went on a quest to find the perfect king cake. One that we could take inspiration from while developing our version at Loblolly Bakery in Hattiesburg. I spent a day scouring New Orleans for examples. I came home with 32 king cakes from bakeries and stores all over the city.

Evaluating 32 king cakes for specific pros and cons ended up being a lot like judging a chili cookoff. Typically, in chili cookoffs there are two dozen entries with people trying all sorts of crazy ideas with a chili recipe, and one sole entry that actually tastes like chili. Out of the 32 king cakes there were only a few that appealed to my tastes and only one that absolutely nailed it— the celebrated Vietnamese bakehouse on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans— Dong Phoung Bakery.

The Dong Phoung king cake is— to this columnist’s taste, along with a majority of the New Orleans contingent— the gold standard when it comes to that particular pastry. Initially, the hype was so overblown I was skeptical. To be honest, during the Great King Cake Quest of 2023, I was hoping I would find a diamond in the rough and a king cake that bested the highly acclaimed and overly lionized cakes that come from Dong Phoung. Though in the end, the clear winner, and the clear winner by far, was the Dong Phoung king cake. It made most all the others pedestrian in texture and taste.

Granted, there were a few that were good, but only one that was exceptional. I traveled down to New Orleans on a follow-up and waited in line at one of the outposts that is lucky enough to receive a small order of Dong Phoung cakes a few times a week to make sure the initial cake wasn’t a fluke. I learned quickly that there is a reason Dong Phoung sells out of king cakes before the season starts and why devotees stand in line for an hour or more to score one. It’s that good.

So, when pastry chef Martha Foose and her husband, head baker, Donald Bender, and I— the Loblolly brain trust such as it is— began discussing what our king cake would be, there was one clear example we chose to follow.

Last year during Mardi Gras our bakery hadn’t opened yet and Martha and Donald baked king cakes in the kitchen at The Midtowner in a basic convection oven. We brought them to Crescent City Grill to sell and they usually sold out within 10-15 minutes.

This year the bakery is open and firing on all cylinders. We have the proper equipment and the proper space to bake our version of the perfect king cake. After a couple of trial runs and false starts, the baking team nailed it a few days into the season. The king cakes we are baking in the Loblolly kitchen these days are— to my taste— perfect.

The Loblolly king cake is a soft, eggy, buttery brioche-like bread with a very subtle Ermine frosting that is just sweet enough. We decided to focus on four flavors instead of offering dozens of alternatives. We committed our team to focus only on those four varieties and do them perfectly— Classic French Quarter Spice (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, etc), Hometown Blueberry-Cream Cheese, Praline-Pecan (with dolce de leche and cream cheese) and Traditional Cream Cheese. 

So far, a little over a week into the season, demand is far outpacing supply. Our small team is baking all night and pumping out as many as they can. Our focus is on quality, not quantity. That’s just not some PR mantra that we say to paint a pretty picture. It’s how we truly feel. I would rather miss out on thousands of dollars of sales serving a handmade product I am proud of— and I am very, very proud of our king cakes— than to pump out a large volume of overly sweet, dry, institutional cakes that are lesser products.

When I first got into this business, I never would have seen myself owning and operating a business that baked and sold king cakes. As I stated earlier, I wasn’t even a fan of king cakes. But 90% of what I have done over the last 37 years hasn’t been planned. My original goal was to own one restaurant so I could wear shorts and t-shirts to work every day. I had no ambition greater than that. It just goes to show when we open ourselves to opportunities magic can happen. 

Are king cakes magical? No. But the buzz around them is sweet (pun intended). In the end it’s about doing the work one loves and of which he or she can be proud. 

Onward.

KING CAKE BREAD PUDDING

2 cups             milk

2 cups             heavy whipping cream

3/4 cup           sugar, divided

4                     egg yolks

8                     eggs

2 tsp               vanilla

1/8 tsp             salt

1 tsp               cinnamon

1                    8-10” round cream cheese filled King Cake

 

Place the milk, cream and half of the sugar in a small sauce pot and place over medium heat. Bring this mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent the sugar from burning. While the milk mixture is heating, place the remaining sugar, egg yolks, whole eggs, vanilla and salt into a stainless-steel mixing bowl. Using a wire whisk, beat the egg mixture until it become light yellow in color. Slowly begin adding the hot milk to the beaten eggs, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from cooking. 

Cut the King Cake into two-inch thick slices.

Pour half of the custard into a two-quart round Pyrex baking dish (nine-inch diameter).

Submerge the King cake slices into the custard. Pour the remaining custard over the top and cover the baking dish. Cover and refrigerate over night.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

 Remove the covering from the refrigerated bread pudding and gently press down the King Cake so that the custard completely covers the surface. Cover the bread pudding with a piece of parchment paper, and then cover the paper with a piece of aluminum foil.

In a roasting pan large enough to hold the Pyrex dish, place two inches of hot water. Place the Pyrex dish in the water and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and parchment paper and bake for 10 additional minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the pudding to rest for one hour before serving.

Serve with Brandy Crème Anglaise

 

Yields 8-10 servings

 

Brandy Crème Anglaise

1 cup cream

1/2 cup half and half

1/4 cup brandy

3/4 cup sugar, divided

4 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

In a stainless steel pot bring the cream, half and half, brandy, half of the sugar and to vanilla a simmer. While it is heating, combine the yolks and remaining sugar in a mixing bowl and whip until pale yellow in color.

Slowly begin adding the cream mixture into to yolks, stirring constantly until all the milk has cream mixture has been added. Pour the mixture back into the sauce pot and cook over a low-medium flame stirring constantly. Cook until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat a spoon or spatula.

Remove from the heat and cool down in an ice bath.

This sauce may be made two-three days in advance.

 

Yields : 8-10 servings


Recent Comments

Search Jackson Jambalaya

Subscribe to JJ's Youtube channel

Archives

Trollfest '09

Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, “How I sold out to da Man.” Robbie Bell again performs: “Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells” and “Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine”. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to “Dancing with the Stars”, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.

Wrestling returns, except this time it will be a Battle Royal with Othor Cain, Ben Allen, Kim Wade, Haley Fisackerly, Alan Lange, and “Big Cat” Donna Ladd all in the ring at the same time. The Battle Royal will be in a steel cage, no time limit, no referee, and the losers must leave town. Marshand Crisler will be the honorary referee (as it gives him a title without actually having to do anything).


Meet KIM Waaaaaade at the Entergy Tent. For five pesos, Kim will sell you a chance to win a deed to a crack house on Ridgeway Street stuffed in the Howard Industries pinata. Don't worry if the pinata is beaten to shreds, as Mr. Wade has Jose, Emmanuel, and Carlos, all illegal immigrants, available as replacements for the it. Upon leaving the Entergy tent, fig leaves will be available in case Entergy literally takes everything you have as part of its Trollfest ticket price adjustment charge.

Donna Ladd of The Jackson Free Press will give several classes on learning how to write. Smearing, writing without factchecking, and reporting only one side of a story will be covered. A donation to pay their taxes will be accepted and she will be signing copies of their former federal tax liens. Ms. Ladd will give a dramatic reading of her two award-winning essays (They received The Jackson Free Press "Best Of" awards.) "Why everything is always about me" and "Why I cover murders better than anyone else in Jackson".

In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.


In order to help clean up the legal profession, Adam Kilgore of the Mississippi Bar will be giving away free, round-trip plane tickets to the North Pole where they keep their bar complaint forms (which are NOT available online). If you don't want to go to the North Pole, you can enjoy Brant Brantley's (of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance) free guided tours of the quicksand field over by High Street where all complaints against judges disappear. If for some reason you are unable to control yourself, never fear; Judge Houston Patton will operate his jail where no lawyers are needed or allowed as you just sit there for minutes... hours.... months...years until he decides he is tired of you sitting in his jail. Do not think Judge Patton is a bad judge however as he plans to serve free Mad Dog 20/20 to all inmates.

Trollfest '09 is a pet-friendly event as well. Feel free to bring your dog with you and do not worry if your pet gets hungry, as employees of the Jackson Zoo will be on hand to provide some of their animals as food when it gets to be feeding time for your little loved one.

Relax at the Fox News Tent. Since there are only three blonde reporters in Jackson (being blonde is a requirement for working at Fox News), Megan and Kathryn from WAPT and Wendy from WLBT will be on loan to Fox. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both and a torn-up Obama yard sign will entitle you to free drinks served by Megan, Wendy, and Kathryn. Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required. Just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '09 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.


Note: Security provided by INS.

Trollfest '07

Jackson Jambalaya is the home of Trollfest '07. Catch this great event which promises to leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Sonjay Poontang and his band headline the night with a special steel cage, no time limit "loser must leave town" bout between Alan Lange and "Big Cat"Donna Ladd following afterwards. Kamikaze will perform his new song F*** Bush, he's still a _____. Did I mention there was no referee? Dr. Heddy Matthias and Lori Gregory will face off in the undercard dueling with dangling participles and other um, devices. Robbie Bell will perform Her two latest songs: My Best Friends are in the Media and Mama's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be George Bell. Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger will host "Pin the Tail on the Trial Lawyer", sponsored by State Farm.

There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.

If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.

Note: Security provided by INS
.