Twelfth Night

I’ve got my mind on king cake and king cake on my mind.

If you have heard of New Orleans you probably know about our beloved dessert of the Carnival season, King Cake.  While some bakers may offer king cake year round if you are from here you have been told no king cake before Twelfth Night.

We take this pretty seriously from not eating king cake to not removing your Christmas tree before Epiphany which is January 6th.  Yes, It is the same day every year no matter the date of Mardi Gras.  There are a lot of superstitions about what happens if you do partake in King Cake before twelfth night and one of them is rain on Mardi Gras.

So What Happens on Twelfth Night?

Per usual we celebrate Twelfth Night like we do most things.  Traditionally the Phunny Phorthy Phellows have a streetcar ride that they do through the city to kick off Carnival.  You can view the entire parade schedule here as well as some other parades that are happening January 6th.

So What is King Cake?

First of all it is delicious.  I like all kinds of king cake from traditional to savory.  Traditional king cakes are a braided cinnamon pastry dough, similar to a cinnamon roll, topped with colored sugar containing a small plastic baby inside that represents baby Jesus.  In New Orleans there are basically two teams for king cake, team sugar topping and team frosting topping.

These days you can find king cakes that are filled with fruit or pastry cream, some are topped with frosting and there are even savory king  cakes that have goat cheese and crawfish inside.

When is Mardi Gras and When do Parades Start?

Although Twelfth Night is January 6th and we will have a few parades that night the actual parading schedule will not start until February 9th.  This year Mardi Gras is March 6th.  You can view the entire parade schedule here.

Mardi Gras is definitely a fun time for all.  We love it and will spend a lot of time at parades in February.  I wrote a post last year on taking your kids to parades and also one on dressing kids for parades (which can be a pain because of the weather here).  Looking forward to bringing all the fun to you again this year.

XO,

Tippy