What to know about king cake for a short Mardi Gras 2024, from shipping to new bakeries

King cake is part of Carnival season, but around New Orleans it can sometimes feel like a season in its own right.

Like any hotly anticipated season (Saints, crawfish), it’s worth sizing up at the outset. Here’s what to know for 2024 as we anticipate the ceremonious first slice on Jan. 6.

39 days of king cake

Something like king cake is available year round, but those faithful to New Orleans tradition know it only has its cultural significance during Carnival season.

That season will fly by this year, between the kick off on Jan. 6 and Fat Tuesday bringing down the curtain on Feb. 13.

That means we have just 39 days of official, culturally sanctioned king cake ahead.

Mardi Gras can be as late as March 9 and as early as Feb. 3. Remember back in 2021 when Carnival lasted 51 days? That was a lot of king cake, and a lot of time to think about king cake.

But for those who count king cake days more closely than king cake calories, this year gives precious little time to reunite with old favorites and try new contenders.

King cake kick-off parties

Elsewhere around our country, sensible people are putting away holiday décor and perhaps battening down for a long, productive winter. Not here.

Carnival begins Jan. 6 with parades and parties, and of course king cake is a centerpiece of those. Having Twelfth Night arrive on a Saturday should spark them all up even more.

Friday countdown at King Cake Hub: King Cake Hub is wasting not a moment of the short season with a party starting the night before.

King Cake Hub is a business that gathers cakes from many different producers in one spot, a sugary showroom to shop for a wide variety in one place. It’s back again this year at Zony Mash Beer Project (3940 Thalia St.), a brewery built in a converted vintage movie theater.

Its King Cake Monarch Pageant and Countdown to Carnival Party is held in the brewery taproom on Friday, Jan. 5, from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Drag performers will compete in a pageant to crown a monarch for the season, with the first cakes to be cut and shared at midnight. There will be beer (including Zony Mash’s king cake stout), hot chicken sandwiches from Southerns Food Truck and music.

King Cake Hub then opens for business Jan. 6 at 8 a.m. with live piano music from Josh Paxton, coffee from HEY! Coffee Co. and donuts from Paw Paw's Donuts for snacking on site.

King Cake Hub operates daily from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. through Lundi Gras (Feb. 12 this year, and yes that feels really early).

Pre-parade party at Sazerac House: Sazerac House (101 Magazine St., 504-910-0100), a multi-floor museum to New Orleans cocktail culture, hosts a Jan. 6 party called Cheers to Carnival with king cake and cocktails that can also serve as a prelude to the evening’s Joan of Arc parade, which begins in the French Quarter near its downtown location.

Saturday’s party is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. (when the parade rolls) and begins with a toast with Ojen cocktails, a drink steeped in Carnival tradition. Throughout, there will be samples of king cake and cocktails, appearances by krewes and marching groups, a glitter bar and DJ music.

There’s also a “Golden Geaux Cup” competition, inviting people to bring their “festively decorated drinking vessel of any kind” for a chance at prizes.

Tickets are $10, including samples of king cake and three cocktails. Register at sazerachouse.com/events/.

No Bywater block party: One knock-on effect of the short season turns up at Bywater Bakery (3624 Dauphine St., 504-336-3336). This neighborhood gem usually hosts its own annual Kings' Day Celebration on Jan. 6 with the dimensions of a block party. But this year founder Chaya Conrad said she couldn’t justify the expense while facing such a short season to recoup it.

Still, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson will perform on the house piano here on Jan. 6, and there will be many types of king cake (both sweet and savory).

Chasing the new, embracing the classics

Every Carnival season sends me scurrying between the old and the new, with my love of the classics and a keen curiosity for what new creations are making their debut.

This season I have my eye on a harvest of new bakeries, including two with opening dates still coming down to the wire at my deadline.

Bearcat Baked (726 Julia St., 504-513-4994) opened in December in the Warehouse District, as the bakery café and coffee program from Bearcat Café (845 Carondelet), which has one of its wildly popular restaurants locations just around the corner.

This finally gives baker Cat Colby-Pariseau a dedicated home base. That means she can ramp up a production of the marvelous, if very unconventional, churros king cake she has made for the past few seasons in makeshift space at the restaurant.

This essentially bends the idea of churros (those sticks of fried pastry dough) into a king cake shape, with cinnamon and sugar and ridges of crunch that are a joy to untangle.

Across town in Faubourg St. John, Nolita (3201 Orleans Ave.) is preparing to open in the same spot that had previously been Mayhew Bakery.

This new bake shop is from Martha Gilreath, who has made her mark with king cakes at pop-ups and through King Cake Hub previously.

Her king cake is a classically beauty, one inspired by the McKenzie’s classic in texture and form, and adds a gentle twist of citrus with orange blossom water and satsuma zest.

Uptown, the former Beth Biundo Sweets is now home to Mae’s Bakeshop (3917 Baronne St.), which is expected to open shortly.

This is the first standalone location for Jeremy Fogg, former pastry chef at Emeril’s who started this brand pop-up style in the pandemic. He has a unique riff on king cake I tried last season.

It's king cake monkey bread, with the quilted warmth, crunchy top and a soft interior of monkey bread. It all pulls apart into pillowy, aromatic puffs of dough, just like monkey bread should.

Across the river in Gretna, Dough Nguyener’s (433 Lafayette St., Gretna, 504-581-8255) has already established itself as a king cake brand over the past few seasons; this will be the first with its own bakery café as a dedicated production facility and retail spot.

Last year, this Vietnamese bakery introduced a king cake called the Parisian, which is made from croissant dough and bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the much sought-after Dong Phuong king cake. This one, though, gets a filling based on ca phe sua da, the Vietnamese iced coffee.

As ever though in Carnival, sometimes the highlights of the season are what you never saw coming, that surprise waiting around the corner. So I’ll have my eyes peeled and my sugary paws ready.

At the same time, a parallel joy of Mardi Gras is enduring tradition, and the old school styles will have plenty of room at the party too.

Shipping with the pros or DIY

Carnival season has long seen king cakes shipped around the country, and this only accelerated in the pandemic as restaurants and bakeries built up their shipping efforts to survive.

Specialty food shipping services move a great deal of king cake around the country every year. The national service Goldbelly, for instance, handles king cakes from Joe Gambino’s Bakery, Maurice French Pastries and now also Dong Phuong.

The local shipping service NOLA Cajun has its own line of king cakes ready to go.

Plenty of king cake makers ship themselves, including mom-and-pop bakeries and local grocery chains.

But don’t leave your king cake shipping options up to a Google search.

If you have a favorite bakery that doesn’t ship, the DIY solution is readily in hand. Buy one, box it and ship it out yourself. People who are out of the market and have friends or family in town can assign one of them to the task as their ground team here in New Orleans. King cake will find a way.

More than cake is at stake

Amid the flurry of sugar and festivities that always attends the return of king cakes, remember that they represent a cornerstone for many businesses. In a way, king cake has helped underwrite the revival of the neighborhood bakery in New Orleans.

For some, Carnival season king cake sales are their primary source of revenue; for many others, these sales make the difference that keeps them going in our deep and difficult summers.

This year, with local businesses contending with many issues and changing economics for their field, and with a short Carnival season, every sale matters more.

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