King & Queen Cakes

So, what is a King Cake?

Started roughly 300 years ago as a dry French bread–type dough with sugar on top and a bean hidden inside to symbolize baby Jesus, the King Cake is now the most iconic symbol of Mardi Gras! Hundreds of thousands of king cakes are eaten in New Orleans and around the world during the Carnival season and beyond. Available in a wide variety of flavors, sizes, and shapes, we love it so much it’s a year-round favorite!

The King Cake was started as a symbolic way to celebrate the journey and arrival of the Three Wisemen to the birthplace of the infant, Jesus. The colors represented on the cake are meant to symbolize the three gifts that the Wisemen brought to baby Jesus. King Cakes are oval-shaped to symbolize the unity of faiths. Each cake is decorated in the traditional Mardi Gras colors - purple representing justice, green representing faith, and gold representing power.

ANTOINE’S KING AND QUEEN CAKES

Starting every year on January 6th, the celebration of the “Epiphany” or “Kings Day”, the traditional cutting of the King Cake by the King and Queen of the two most powerful Mardi Gras krewe’s, Rex and Zulu, is the official kick off of the Mardi Gras season. King cakes are made from a cinnamon flavored puff pastry or dough and are traditionally covered in purple, green, and gold sugar and white icing. They can also be filled with one of several fillings (e.g., They are filled with cream cheese, strawberry, apple, blueberry, pineapple, lemon, etc.). Traditionally each King Cake has a small plastic or porcelain baby hidden in the king cake to symbolize baby Jesus. Today, the baby symbolizes luck and prosperity to whoever finds it in their slice of cake. That person is also responsible for purchasing the next king cake, or for throwing the next Mardi Gras party, or being designated "king" or "queen" for the day.

ANTOINE’S KING AND QUEEN CAKES

One of our original and most popular creations, King Cakes, are a crowd pleaser no matter what time of year you enjoy them! Created in tradition with our own special touch, our King Cakes are available for ordering and shipping year-round and come in a variety of sizes and come in traditional filling flavors, plus a few of our exclusive filling options. Whether you’re looking for something to enjoy at home with family and friends or you need to feed a crowd, we’ve got a King Cake to put a smile of everyone’s face and put a Second line in the steps!

If a King has a cake that’s so special and delicious, his Queen needs one too!! The QUEEN CAKE was created EXCLUSIVELY for Antoine's Bakery, and has five decadent fillings so that a Queen has a choice! The Queen cake includes apple, cream cheese, strawberry and bavarian cream filling. It is beautiful to look at and even better to eat! Because every Queen needs to feed a crowd The Queen Cake is only available in sizes Large or Ex Large.