Days before Twelfth Night, king cake preparation was already in high gear at Adrian’s Bakery in Gentilly. Buckets of purple, green and gold sugar were stacked around the busy work table, and great wads of sweet dough were ready to cut into individual braids.
King cakes were also on bakery founder Adrian Darby’s mind, and he was worried.
Adrian Darby handles buckets of sugar at his Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, one of many New Orleans bakeries that rely on Carnival season king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
“When you have a bakery in New Orleans, king cake season is everything,” said Darby, whose family-run business marks 20 years in 2021.
“We’ll do 30 to 40 percent of our business for the year in these weeks. It has to do well for us to be okay. But this year? We just don’t know what to expect,” Darby said.
After another very early morning spent baking, Adrian Darby rests his arms in his apron inside Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, a neighborhood bakery that relies on king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
After a year that saw one tradition and event after the next called off or recast by the pandemic, New Orleans is about to experience a very different Mardi Gras. Parades are canceled and gatherings are limited.
But the spirit of Carnival season persists in many other facets of local culture and king cakes represent one edible, readily-accessible example.
Earvin Larry Darby weighs dough at his family's Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly as his father Adrian Darby watches over his shoulder. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
It’s also a cake with social traditions built in. How people adapt these in a time of social distancing could be an early barometer for a season that must proceed off its normal script.
“You can’t cancel king cake”
Shortly after news went around that New Orleans would have no Mardi Gras parades this year, David Haydel started getting questions from some of his big out-of-town clients, companies that normally order many king cakes from his family’s Haydel’s Bakery for their own clients.
Hayel king cakes ready for bagging at Haydel's on Jefferson Hwy. in Jefferson, La.
“They wanted to know if we’d still do king cakes,” Haydel said. “I told them of course. The parades are canceled, but you can’t cancel king cake.”
That sentiment is echoed across the vast kingdom of local businesses that rely on the annual craze for the traditional Carnival treat.
It’s a pivotal time for them, especially after the battering of 2020. The seasonal peak for king cake demand, from Twelfth Night through Mardi Gras Day, typically drums up revenue many local businesses need to make it through the long slog of summer.
Spreading out the purple, green, and gold sugar over king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
There’s no doubt the natural habitat of king cakes will be greatly altered this season. Far from parade route parties, king cakes are fixtures around offices (which are now largely depopulated) and schools (which are now taking social distancing measures).
But Will Samuels is banking on the elan of New Orleans people to carry Carnival forward in whatever ways they can.
Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly makes traditional king cakes, with nothing but Carnival-colored sugar on top. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
His business, King Cake Hub, is a one-stop-shop for cakes from more than a dozen bakeries. This year, it’s based in the Broad Theater, a movie theater that is temporarily closed in the pandemic.
“I expect a strong season, and I’m getting that from many of my bakers,” said Samuels. “With everything else getting canceled, New Orleans will find a way to have Mardi Gras.”
The news in 2020 was relentless and often cruel, and that certainly applies to New Orleans restaurants.
Samuels isn’t leaving that to chance though, and King Cake Hub has been cooking up ways to encourage them. One is Mardi Gras TV, a website created to stream a daily-changing schedule of vintage Carnival footage and local productions. The idea is to give people an avenue for “home-based Carnival celebrations,” Samuels said, with accompanying king cake, of course.
“People want to find something to celebrate,” he said. “We’re trying to find ways to bring them a revelry-at-home scenario.”
Chaya Conrad, owner of Bywater Bakery, cleared off a Christmas sign and replaces it with a king cake sign on Kings's Day in New Orleans, Jan. 6, 2019.
A similar idea inspired Bywater Bakery, which normally hosts a big King's Day party (the daytime side of Twelfth Night) with a festival-worth of live performances from local musicians. Owner Chaya Conrad knew they couldn’t host a similar bash this year, so Bywater Bakery hired musicians to pre-record songs that her customers can access online, a way to bring festivities to the king cakes from a distance.
"I think there will still be huge excitement around king cakes because it’s one thing that’s still safe to enjoy about Carnival this year," said Conrad.
Delights, delivered
Bywater Bakery is also one of the growing number of king cake makers to add nationwide shipping this year.
This has always been a strong niche of the business, said Jean Luc Albrin, owner of Maurice French Pastries in Metairie. There are signs it will be much larger this year, especially among people who might otherwise have traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Even before Twelfth Night, Maurice French Pastries had shipped king cakes to people in 39 states.
“People are holed up, looking for something fun or comforting to arrive at their door,” said Albrin.
Advocate staff photo by Ian McNulty - French chef Jean-Luc Albin ran culinary operations for hotels and resorts before taking over Maurice French Pastries in Metairie in 1988.
To add something different to its repertoire this year, Gracious Bakery + Café created a new packaged king cake kit for people to bake and decorate their own cakes at home.
“You have to diversify your revenue now, and we thought this was something fun families could do at home for their own Mardi Gras celebrations,” said co-founder Megan Forman.
New Orleans-based Gracious Bakery + Cafe created a new king cake kit for people to make their own traditional Carnival cakes this year.
Gracious is selling the kits online and also at other local stores, which Forman said was part of an effort to build relationships with more local businesses when so many needs a boost.
For Adrian’s Bakery, entering its 20th Carnival season in pandemic mode brings a mix of apprehension and optimism.
Spreading out the purple, green, and gold sugar over king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
In a normal year, 13,000 king cakes will come through this small bakery. Twelfth Night brings a reliable burst of business, and demand always ramps up at the end of the season, when the parades are rolling. Adrian’s can sell 1,000 a day during that final weekend of Carnival.
Adrian Darby, back left, and his son Earvin Larry, center, make king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Darby will be watching the first days of the season for some indication of how it will go, whether he should hire back his usual seasonal staff and how he should plan the rest of the year.
“There’s a lot riding on this, so we’re worried,” he said. “But we’re hopeful. People have been coming throughout the year, they want their comfort food. I think once people see we still have some kind of Carnival they’ll want their king cakes.”
As a longtime New Orleans baker, Adrian Darby has learned some unassailable truths.
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