New Orleans, LAKing Cake

Time Out calls this New Orleans East bakery king cake royalty and credits a light, buttery dough behind flavors including cream cheese, cinnamon and almond creme, with a durian version added for Lunar New Year. New Orleans Magazine's editors list it first among their favorites. Pre-orders sell out well before the season opens and the counter often sells out early, so the practical move is the cream cheese cake on the day it is released, or one of the authorized resellers around town.

This Metairie bakery makes king cake and close to nothing else, which is the clearest argument there is for ranking the cake rather than the bakery. Time Out traces the recipe to 1965 and describes cinnamon-infused cakes that are hand-braided, finished with the shop's own icing and tri-colored sprinkles. Order the traditional cinnamon. The shop works a season rather than a calendar: its own site currently says it is closed and will reopen for the Christmas season, then runs through Carnival.

Time Out describes what the Jefferson Highway counter actually sells: sweet brioche dough under generous icing and colored sugar, the shape most people picture when they picture king cake. A Magazine Street location joins the Jefferson bakery, which Time Out says puts the cakes within reach of more of the city. The bakery's own site dates the family to 1959 and claims the Guinness record for the world's largest king cake. Order the traditional iced cake on a weekday, since it closes Sunday and Monday.

Martha Gilreath ran king cake pop-ups until they worked well enough to justify a brick and mortar shop in Bayou St. John. Time Out describes the result as simple and stunning, channeling the vintage McKenzie's style with a delicate glaze and bright sugar on top. New Orleans Magazine's digital editor Kelly Massicot adds her own bias and her own verdict, which is that she loves everything the bakery makes. Order the plain glazed cake.

Two cakes here go in opposite directions. Time Out describes a French-inspired Queen Cake filled with frangipane, and a Nectar Cream King Cake that borrows one of the city's snowball flavors, with nectar cream inside and pink and gold luster on top. New Orleans Magazine's editor Ashley McLellan says the regular king cake is by no means regular and that the bakery keeps putting out new flavors, oreo the weekend she wrote. Order the Queen Cake, then check the board.