Monday, February 19, 2007

Non-Edible Babies


Mardi Gras season is King Cake season. King Cakes get their names from the 3 kings in the bible and in New Orleans these cakes date back to the 18th century. I'm not sure how to describe this little treat from history...it's like a braided pastry topped with purple, green and gold icing and filled with various other stuff depending on your preference. There is also usually a trinket inside and for Mardi Gras, this takes the shape of a little non-edible plastic baby.

These days I am digging the Bavarian Cream King Cake from Southside Bakery. Here's a picture from the bakery this morning. I've had it for breakfast and lunch so far today...

Bakeries mass produce king cakes for the local population but there are still some left over. So what do we do with them? We ship them. Here's the UPS container. This can be one expensive treat by the way. A large king cake can cost up to $30 or more and it can cost $50 or more to ship. You can easily drop a smooth $100 sending non-edible babies all over America.

Obviously, with all those cakes headed to parts unknown, the bakeries need to warn people to not eat the baby by accident. To make sure people don't make this mistake the "Non-Edible Baby" label is stamped on each box.

...and as you eat the cake with your friends, if you get the baby, you have to throw the next King Cake Party. I'm off to get another piece.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The picture of the "non-edible" baby in the pastry...that's just a bit disturbing.

Unknown said...

I think Ze would like it.