It’s Mardi Gras! Fat Tuesday! Pastry Party Day!
No need to make a quick trip to the Big Easy to celebrate.
There’s a taste of New Orleans at Sasha's Baking Company at 9th and Baltimore right here in Kansas City.
Pastry Chef Carter Holton was hard at work long before sunrise in the kitchen of Sasha’s.
In addition to some rather naughty cookies that we can’t share with you, Carter was preparing the traditional King Cake…Gulf Coast Style.
It is an egg-based dough with a little cinnamon thrown in.
The braiding process is not as easy it looks considering the beautiful result when Chef Carter is done versus the fallen kingdom of a cake a certain novice attempted this morning.
After the cake bakes, the plastic baby is hidden in the delicious folds.
Whoever finds the baby, is King of Mardi Gras! Sort of a mixed prize considering the king pays for the cake.
The cake is glazed and then decorated with the traditional colors of the season: Green for the new life of Spring. Gold for the wealth of the kingdom. Purple to symbolize royalty.
In the Christian traditions, purple symbolizes justice, the green symbolizes faith, and the gold symbolizes power.
No matter the color, no matter who finds the baby, everyone is a winner with a King Cake from Sasha’s.
Of course, the Lenten season of atonement starts on Wednesday, so the party doesn’t go on forever.
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Joel Nichols can be reached at joel.nichols@kclive.tv.
