[Sca-cooks] King Cakes/Twelfth Night Cakes

[Jeanne Papanastasiou]

Again with the MIL, the Greeks back it for Epiphany and put a coin in it for
luck.  Her people are sheep herders from northern Greece and she says
they've been doing it for at least 300 years..

Are you from New Orleans?  I have a cook book from the 1951 Krewe of Rex.  I
used to be a member of the Krewe of Isis (all female Krewe).  They used a
gold baby not a plastic one, plastic is only about 30 years old.

One of my first cooking jobs was at K-Paul's kitchen!  How cool!

Soffya
http://www.aeonline.biz/Links.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-admin at ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-admin at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of david friedman
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 1:16 PM
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] King Cakes/Twelfth Night Cakes


Up to last Tuesday I have been making king cakes. For those
unfamiliar with them, these are a modern New Orleans custom--a sweet
bread with cinnamon sugar rolled into it, formed into a ring, and
slathered after baking with icing and colored sugar (yellow, green,
and purple). You can buy them in any bakery there during Epiphany
season (Twelfth Night to Mardi Gras); baked into each is a small
plastic baby. Someone brings one into the office or whatever to
share; whoever gets the piece with the baby in it has to bring the
king cake next week.

I've heard of traditional Twelfth Night cakes, where there is a bean
or something baked into it and whoever gets the bean is king for the
day, and I have been told that of course this goes way back
in history, by the usual undocumented hearsay-type sources. Does
anyone know of any actual period references to this custom?

Elizabeth/Betty Cook
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