Fat Tuesday 2011: King Cake History and Traditions

In short, the story behind Fat Tuesday refers to the practice of letting yourself go and eating fatty foods on the night before the start of Lent. Then, during the religious season of Lent you are asked to fast for 40 days, often opting against eating fatty foods, meats, eggs and pancakes, depending on your culture.

The most popular food associated with the Mardi Gras season, more notably in New Orleans, is king cake. The season of the king cake runs from the Twelfth Night (January 6) until Ash Wednesday.

King cake, one of the many foods consumed on Fat Tuesday

Patrick Semansky, AP

King Cake is one of the many delicious foods eaten on Fat Tuesday each year.

King cake, in its most traditional form, is a ring cake made from a bread similar to brioche, which has icing on top dressed up in the three colors of Mardi Gras: purple, green and gold. Inside the cake, you will often find filling. The fillings will vary, but the most popular are cream cheese and praline. As an added bonus, there is a small trinket, usually a small plastic baby which to some represents Baby Jesus, baked into the cake. In recent tradition, the idea behind the trinket is that whoever gets the piece with the baby baked into it is supposed to buy the next cake.

The history of king cake dates back to the 18th century, brought to the United States by Spanish and French colonists. King cake derives its name from the biblical three kings, which tells the tale of the three kings who journeyed to Bethlehem bearing gifts at the arrival of the newborn baby Jesus.

In the European tradition, a small bean or pea was hidden inside the king cake, and whoever found the bean was declared the "king of the feast." Since the 1950s, however, the trinket has replaced the bean in the United States. While the baby trinket is the most common, there are also various plastic trinket kings wearing colorful crowns. Many perceive this tradition to be a choking hazard, which is why some bakeries will offer up an option to have the trinket removed from the cake.

In 1871, they used the finding of the trinket or bean as the selection process in naming the queen of the Mardi Gras. In Mexico, the person who finds the trinket inside the cake is supposed to cook the tamales for the "Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary," while the most recent Carnival tradition calls for the finder of the trinket to simply buy the next king cake.

More From Kitchen Daily:
Simple king cake recipe and helpful preparation tips.