Four Amazing Places to Get King Cake for Mardi Gras in Texas
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Festive and eye-catching, king cake is one of many cultural tidbits shared between Texas and its next-door neighbor, Louisiana. Originating in France as an element of Catholic tradition, king cake is a blend of French pastry and traditional coffee cake, often formed into the shape of an oval to mimic a king’s royal crown. Adorned with frosting and sprinkles in the symbolic colors of purple, gold and green, king cake is a colorful centerpiece at the heart of every Mardi Gras – a grand festival marking the beginning of Lent. In New Orleans, king cakes (how long do cakes last?) start to appear in storefronts citywide in early January and are available for purchase for around two months, until Ash Wednesday. According to tradition, the guest who finds a plastic baby hidden in their slice bears the task of purchasing the cake the following year.
While Mardi Gras is most popular in Louisiana, the tradition has spread to locales across the globe, with particularly strong ties to Southeast Texas. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, migrants from Louisiana set down roots in the Lone Star state, where Cajun and Creole cultures continue to thrive to this day. As a result, Texans need not look far for a taste of authentic king cake, with a slew of local bakeries offering cakes virtually indistinguishable from their Louisianian counterparts. Read on to discover four Texan bakeries serving up authentic king cakes this Mardi Gras season.
Rao’s Bakery
With their own special custom of Texas funeral cake, Texans are no strangers to sacred pastry rituals. According to Jake Tortorice, owner of Rao’s Bakery, the tradition of the king cake is pivotal to celebrating Fat Tuesday.
“What’s Mardi Gras without a king cake?” Tortorice jokes. “It’s like a birthday without a birthday cake. Boring.”
Rao’s Bakery, which first opened for business in 1941, continues to thrive today from its original location in Beaumont. With four locations in East Texas, Rao’s Bakery has been crafting authentic king cakes since the 1990s, producing around 15,000 cakes in 2021 alone. Alongside their traditional king cake is a miniature version known as the Petite Lafitte. Their full-size versions, which can serve a party of up to 20 people, come in a wide range of flavors including strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and voodoo, a special variation filled with cream cheese (how long does cream cheese last?) and topped with chocolate chips (how long do chocolate chips last?) and toasted coconut flakes (how long do coconut flakes last?).
Great Harvest
Launched in Tyler, Texas in the summer of 2021, Great Harvest aims to bring “a little bit of Louisiana” to the East Texas region with their authentic, vibrant king cakes. Owner Laura Jones knew that king cakes would play a major role in her bakery from day one, having grown up with parents hailing from South Louisiana.
“When we opened Great Harvest, we knew we wanted to bring king cakes to East Texas in a big way,” Jones said. “So, I went to Lake Charles with my daughter, and we learned to make them properly; these are true Louisiana king cakes. The recipe was crafted in Lafayette. I learned to make them in Lake Charles, and now we offer them in Tyler.”
The bakery offers king cakes in six flavor varieties, including double chocolate, raspberry and cinnamon cream cheese, and pecan praline. The cakes, which take around five hours to make, are handcrafted from scratch, and sold within a 24-hour window to ensure their freshness. Leftover cakes are donated to local shelters. Jones regularly offers samples in store, giving customers the chance to try the special dessert while learning about its history.
“It’s so fun to watch people come in and taste the king cake on the breadboard, and learn the history and tradition of it,” Jones explained. “Especially since many people have never had one.”
Three Brothers Bakery
Three Brothers Bakery was born from the dream of Holocaust survivors Sigmund, Sol and Max Jucker, who established the company in Houston in 1949. Signmund’s son, Bobby, took up work at the bakery in 1983, crafting king cakes and launching a fresh chapter in his family’s storied legacy.
“My dad and his two brothers were really bread bakers," Bobby explains. “They didn’t keep up with what was going on other than Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and other major holidays. Mardi Gras? They had never heard of that before I came.”
When Three Brothers first began offering the French-inspired pastries, locals native to New Orleans were less than impressed. Bobby pulled out all the stops, visiting famous Louisiana bakeries to learn the perfect recipe for making authentic New Orleans king cakes. Today, Three Brothers is known for some of the best king cakes around, specializing in cinnamon and cream-cheese varieties with the option of adding fruit fillings.
Cake Turners
For owners Wendy and Mark Turner, every vacation is a learning experience. Five years ago, while on a trip abroad to France, the husband-and-wife duo learned how to make croissant dough during a cooking class for tourists. Upon returning home to Lumberton, Texas, the couple modified the recipe to create the dough for king cakes –– a fun, fresh take on the traditional dessert.
“It’s a little more of a European style, and it’s turned out really well,” Mark explains. “It’s very moist, flaky and buttery.”
Cake Turners sold an estimated 1,300 king cakes last year and are on track to bake at least 1,500 this Mardi Gras season. Cake Turners offers small, medium, and large sizes with a whopping sixteen choices of filling, with everything from chocolate chip cookie dough to savory boudin. As the Turners’ special dough takes around 24 hours to rise, it’s recommended to order cakes ahead of time via the shop’s online portal. The bakery produces around ten extra cakes each day, but these typically sell out before lunchtime.
“You can tell the people who have ordered from us before,” Mark jokes. “They’re calling at eleven o’clock, asking if we have anything left.”
If the king cake is calling out to your sweet tooth after the Mardi Gras celebrations are over, then don’t worry. Many bakeries offer the festive dessert year-round, often under alternative names such as “freedom cake” or “Christmas wreath cake”. It’s recommended to check ahead of time for guidelines on pre-ordering cakes out of season. From all of us at TexasRealFood, Happy Mardi Gras! Stay tuned for all the latest news and interesting stories on Texan culinary culture.
