St. Louis, MOKing Cake

Daniel Neman reports in the Post-Dispatch that this bakery's first king cakes sold fifteen the first year. Then owner Randy McArthur asked New Orleans bakers at a convention what he was missing, came back with praline filling, icing and beads, and sold 1,200 the next year. That phrase, a party in a box, is theirs. Owner Scott Rinaberger expected about 500 by Shrove Tuesday. Order a filled quarter sheet from the Lemay Ferry Road counter, strawberry cheese or brownie.

Simone Faure grew up in New Orleans, which Feast Magazine says is why king cake season here is no novelty. Feast records a traditional cake alongside bourbon pecan and bananas foster versions, each serving ten to twelve, sold up until Fat Tuesday. St. Louis Magazine adds the rest of the Mardi Gras counter: boudin croissants filled with cajun sausage, rice and pork, and a crawfish pie. Order the bourbon pecan early in the season, since the magazine's roundup ran with the cakes already too late to order.

Feast Magazine calls this Edwards Street counter on the Hill historic, and lists the everyday range around the seasonal cake: bread, cookies, baklava, pies and tiramisu. St. Louis Magazine describes the king cake itself as decorated with beads, coins, masks and other trinkets over the green, purple and gold. Order the king cake and add a few iced Mardi Gras cookies, which St. Louis Magazine notes run alongside cupcakes, brownies and macaroons while supplies last.

Feast Magazine credits this Affton bakery with sixty years of German baked goods and custom cakes, and both it and St. Louis Magazine describe the same Mardi Gras item: a twelve inch butter dough king cake with cinnamon and sugar, shaped as a wreath and sized to feed twelve to fifteen. St. Louis Magazine adds a useful detail for anyone who misses the season, which is that the cake can be ordered any time of year. Order the wreath.

The version on Watson Road is the French one. St. Louis Magazine's Mardi Gras roundup records miniature galette des rois here, the traditional French king cake, sold in limited quantities across the weekend and again on Fat Tuesday, alongside Mardi Gras colored cupcakes and a brown butter pecan praline cupcake. Order a miniature galette, which is a single serving rather than a cake for a party, and a praline cupcake to go with it.