“Laissez le bon temps rouler” or as most people say, “Let the good times roll.” When I hear this term, I think of Mardi Gras, then I think King Cake. 

King Cake is a popular dessert for most New Orleanians around Carnival season. For me, it’s my favorite dessert. There are so many places in my hometown of New Orleans that serve some amazing King Cakes, so I figured why not try a few. I decided to switch it up a little bit. I chose to try a couple places that people normally would not think to buy King Cake.

I tried a total of three King Cakes. It would have been five, but my two favorite places to buy King Cake had lines wrapped around their buildings. So, unfortunately I could not taste the king cakes from Manny Randazzos’ King Cakes and Haydel’s Bakery’s this year. 

The King Cakes I was able to taste were Antoine’s Famous Cakes & Pies, Terrytown Café & Doughnuts and Coffee &. 

Terrytown Café was the first one I tried. With this café participating in King Cake Festival the week before Mardi Gras, I expected it to taste so much better than it did. This King Cake tasted like a donut without the glaze. Even though the taste wasn’t the best, they had a very cute presentation. It came with a doubloon and a king cake baby along with rainbow sprinkles and purple, green and gold sugar. 

After hearing people talk so much about how good Antoine’s is, I was thrilled to be able to try it. Let’s just say icing isn’t always the best part. There was so much icing on top of the cake that you could not enjoy the cake itself. The icing was entirely too sweet and overpowered the cake. After picking off some of the icing, I tried the actual cake. I wouldn’t say it was the greatest, but it was okay. I did not like how the cake didn’t seem fully baked. It was very mushy at the bottom, but I guess most people like that because they also had a line out the door of their store. 

The final King Cake I was able to try was at Coffee &. It is a little restaurant right off of the Westbank Expressway in Marrero. Everything about their King Cake was excellent. It did not have abundance of icing and it was baked to perfection. It was not mushy and it was fresh. Taking a bite of their King Cake was like taking a bite of Mardi Gras. They present their King Cake the traditional way with purple, green and gold sprinkles and a baby on the inside for someone to find. Hopefully it isn’t you because you would have to buy the next one.   

After tasting these King Cakes, Coffee & won by a landslide. So, next time you go looking for a King Cake, don’t feel the need to wait in long lines; just head to Coffee & and get a traditional King Cake or one of their many filled options too.