When people think about Mardi Gras, their thoughts turn to New Orleans and the party that ensues. Green and purple beads flung from balconies and luscious parade floats fill the streets, but another tradition lies in the form of a dessert embedded in religious faith with roots in the history of New Orleans: the colorful King Cakes.
These desserts, which are bought and sold at high prices and often ordered straight from Louisiana, have begun coming from the kitchen of Brian Bourke, professor and program coordinator at Murray State. Bourke said he started baking the cakes to offer his wife, a New Orleans-area native, a taste of home.
“When we left Louisiana, I thought, ‘I got to make some Louisiana-style foods to keep her happy,’ and not long after, I started making King Cakes,” Bourke said. “I (guess I) posted a picture on Facebook and somebody said ‘Well, are you going to bring those into work?’”
According to New Orleans Tourism, the King Cake tradition is traced back to the Biblical story of the three wise kings who brought gifts to Baby Jesus. The consumption of King Cakes begins on Jan. 6, otherwise known as Epiphany or the “Twelfth Night” to Mardi Gras day, religiously known as Fat Tuesday.
Fat Tuesday is a day of the consumption of rich, fatty foods before Ash Wednesday in preparation for Lent, a 40-day period symbolic of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, and is a time of preparation for Easter, ending on Holy Thursday.
“It remains a way to be connected to someplace that has a lot of meaning for me,” Bourke said. “The culture of South Louisiana is unlike anything else in the country, and that’s coming from someone who’s lived in several places.”
Bourke grew up in Wisconsin and the Carolinas for most of his youth, moving to Alabama as an adult and later to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he met his wife. Bourke said the parades throughout New Orleans are an experience unlike any other.
“It’s really an experience to be had,” Bourke said. “Our daughter’s in seventh grade, and she’s trying to convince us that we should go down for Mardi Gras, (saying) she can use it as an excused cultural experience for school.”
While King Cakes can vary in shape and size, they are essentially a cinnamon roll-styled dough baked and covered in sweet icing and colorful sprinkles or powder in the symbolic colors of gold for power, purple for justice and green for faith. With the small addition of a baby figurine inside.
The baby figure found inside a King Cake is a symbol of luck and prosperity for the individual who finds it, as well as the responsibility to purchase the next year’s King Cake.
Mardi Gras consolidated into a sugary pastry. A pastry that hundreds stand in line to purchase.
“I’ve never actually had to stand in line because where we lived, just outside Baton Rouge, we had some local grocery stores that made them in house,” Bourke said. “You could go and get one at the grocery store and it (would be) decent, (but) not as good as the ones you stand in line for.”
Nicole Hand, interim dean and professor of art, said she found that Brian’s cakes were just as good as the ones from New Orleans.
“Brian’s King Cakes are amazing. My husband graduated from the University of Louisiana, and we celebrate Mardi Gras every year,” Hand said. “Before Brian started making his cakes, we would have one shipped from New Orleans.”
In his own kitchen, Bourke found the perfect recipe from one of the local television stations in New Orleans that came from one of the popular bakeries called Haydel’s.
“I knew what it should taste like, so I just gave it a whirl,” Bourke said. “And that’s been the recipe that I’ve been using for several years.”
After bringing cakes to work with him, Bourke posted on Facebook inquiring if anyone would be interested in buying a King Cake. Friends expressed interest and as the word spread, so did Bourke’s clientele. Last year, he sold 33 King Cakes from his kitchen.
As of Jan. 26, he has received 36 orders with five weeks to go until Fat Tuesday. One of such orders came from Dana Thompson, assistant dean of libraries.
“I’m from the New Orleans area and for the longest time, couldn’t find a place to buy a King Cake in the area. One year, I even drove to Paducah,” Thompson said. “But when I discovered that my friend Brian Bourke was making his own King Cakes, I definitely had to try one. Now I buy one every year to celebrate the Mardi Gras season, since I can’t be there in person.”
But for Bourke, selling his King Cakes was never about the money.
“It’s being able to share the (culture) with other folks,” Bourke said. “We (the United States) don’t have a singular culture. We got so much diversity that if we can share some of that through food, then it makes it fun.”
