Mardi Gras is Tuesday, Feb. 16, and this year, public partying is not recommended.
Portland’s annual Mardi Gras parade, typically held along North Mississippi Avenue, won’t happen this year due to conoravirus concerns, though a smaller celebration is planned for Pioneer Courthouse Square. Even the parades in New Orleans have been canceled, and residents there have taken to celebrating “Yardi Gras” by decorating their homes and lawns.
Enter the king cake, a bit of indulgence you can enjoy safely at home.
First, a bit of history: Variations of a king’s cake, or Epiphany cake, or rosca de reyes, are eaten around the world. Generally, the cakes are associated with the Christian holiday of Twelfth Night or Epiphany, the day celebrating the arrival of the three wise kings to greet the baby Jesus.
In New Orleans, brightly colored king cakes are a staple of carnival season, which kicks off on Twelfth Night and culminates on Mardi Gras day, or Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is thus the last big night to party before the more solemn season of Lent begins.
New Orleans-style king cakes are glazed with sugar toppings in purple, green and gold. The colors are a tradition for Mardi Gras dating back to the city’s earliest parades in the 1800s. A plastic baby (or raisin, or an almond) representing the baby Jesus is hidden inside the cake. If you get the piece with the baby, congrats! It’s good luck, and you’re supposed to bring the cake to the next party. The cake is more like a cinnamon roll than a spongey cake, and is usually in the shape of a ring or an oval.
“When I was a little kid in New Orleans, they just had very simple brioche. It was like bread almost, but you were so happy about the sugar sprinkles on top,” said Bonnie Ward Strauss, a New Orleans native now living in Portland.
Strauss has had a few careers over the years – as a teacher, social worker and restaurant owner. Most recently, she’d been leading corporate team building classes. When the pandemic spread, that work dried up.
“It was like, OK, what am I going to do?” she said. “I thought, I want to give people comfort food, because I really feel like they need that.”
Last March, she opened Gris Gris Kitchen, cooking up Cajun and Southern favorites like red beans and rice, gumbo and étouffée. Rather than open a physical location, Strauss rents a commercial kitchen and offers pick up or delivery of weekly dish specials.
“I felt like with the pandemic, we needed some kind of warm, fuzzy connection, and food is something that gives comfort to people,” Strauss said. “I really do love doing it, especially the New Orleans food. When I’m making the gumbo, it just makes me so happy, smelling the smells of my childhood.”
She accepts weekly orders through noon Saturday at her website, and food is available for pick up or delivery on Tuesdays.
Gris Gris Kitchen offers a variety of king cake flavors – including the traditional sugar cinnamon, a “boozy” version with chocolate cream filling and a hint of cognac, or a savory boudin sausage king cake – for between $24 and $28. If a whole cake is too much of a temptation, you can order by the slice for $7.
Strauss has also created a smaller, French-style flaky pastry filled with almond paste, which she’s calling a galette des reines, or queen’s cake, for $10.
Those who want to celebrate Fat Tuesday with one of Strauss’s cakes should order by Saturday, Feb. 13. For ordering information, visit grisgriskitchen.com.
If you’re in the Portland area, here are a few other places offering king cakes this season:
NOLA Doughnuts
A king cake from NOLA Doughnuts, with plastic baby included.
The owners of NOLA Doughnuts are from New Orleans, so it’s no surprise the shop, which has locations at 365 N. State St. in Lake Oswego and 110 N.W. 10th Ave. in the Pearl District, is offering something special to celebrate Mardi Gras.
There’s the 8-inch round, brioche-style king cake with cinnamon and brown sugar and topped with a Madagascar vanilla glaze. The king cakes do come with a plastic baby, though all bakeries in Portland seem to put the babies on the outside of the cake – likely because it would be deemed a choking hazard to the uninitiated if it were stuffed inside.
They also offer King Cake La’ssants doughnuts. The dough is NOLA Doughnut’s signature blend of a croissant and doughnut, creating a flaky, buttery square doughnut that’s stuffed with a cinnamon cream cheese mousse and topped with the same vanilla glaze.
La’ssants are available while supplies last at the stores, but king cakes are $25 and available by pre-order only. Order by noon Friday to have yours by Mardi Gras day. For more info, visit noladoughnuts.com.
Chelsea Cakes
A king cake by Chelsea Cake, which of course comes with a plastic baby.
Chelsea Cakes, owned and baked by Louisiana-native Chelsea Speir, offers soft, doughy king cakes in traditional cinnamon sugar or pralines and cream flavors.
Speir founded her desserts business about seven months after being laid off from her office job in commercial real estate. She doesn’t have a brick and mortar location (yet), but cakes can be picked up from her cooking location at Gumba restaurant, 1733 N.E. Albert St.
Speir also includes free delivery to the Portland area for the $50 price of her king cakes. Order online at chelseacakespdx.net by Feb. 14 to have your cake in time for Mardi Gras.
La Provence and Petite Provence
La Provence and Petite Provence — with eight locations across Portland, Vancouver, Hillsboro, Beaverton and The Dalles — offer two varieties of Mardi Gras treats.
Their king cake is a brioche baked with raisins and an orange sugar icing, with sprinkles in purple, green and gold. They also offer the French-style galette des rois, a flaky pastry with almond-paste filling. Instead of a plastic baby, the French cake comes with a paper crown.
Either cake is $32.95 and must be pre-ordered at least four days in advance. (There’s a discount if you order by Feb. 10.) For a list of locations and contact numbers, visit provencepdx.com.
Helen Bernhard Bakery
A king cake by Helen Bernhard Bakery, located at 1717 N.E. Broadway in Portland.
Helen Bernhard Bakery, at 1717 N.E. Broadway in Portland, has been offering king cakes for the past several years. Their 8-inch ring cinnamon roll style cakes (plastic baby included) are $13.95 and are available for day-before pre-order, or if you’re lucky, in-stock at the store. (Two cakes had already been baked and bought on Friday morning.)
To order, call 503-287-1251 or visit helenbernhardbakery.com.
Do you know of a place I missed? Tell me where you get your king cakes by emailing sswindler@oregonian.com.
-- Samantha Swindler, sswindler@oregonian.com, @editorswindler
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Where to find a New Orleans-style Mardi Gras king cake in Portland - OregonLive
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