King cake Photo taken Monday, February 20, 2012 Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / The Beaumont Enterprise
If you need a friend to celebrate Fat Tuesday with, Jake Tortorice suggests you get a king cake.
"You should see people start following me when I bring a king cake into an office," said Tortorice, the owner of Rao's Bakery. "I make a lot of new friends doing that."
The famous symbol of Mardi Gras usually means there are good times to be had - long before and even after today's Fat Tuesday celebrations.
Market Basket and Kroger have been selling king cakes for the past several weeks and Tortorice said his company started making and shipping king cakes back in December and plan to keep it up for at least another week.
In that time, he estimates they've shipped about 1,500 king cakes - not to mention the ones that are selling in the stores.
From New York to California, Connecticut to Georgia and hundreds of places in between, Southeast Texans who have transplanted to other parts of the state and country or locals who have far flung families want to be able to laissez les bon temps roulette (let the good time roll), and they need a traditional Mardi Gras cake to do so.
Others, though, aren't really sure what they'll be getting when they order a king cake.
"Someone told me they thought it was a big donut with jelly in it," said Kristin Baker, who is in charge of shipping the cakes for Rao's.
The cakes are actually more similar to large cinnamon rolls and come in a variety of flavors and typically are iced with the purple, green and gold colors of Mardi Gras.
Tortorice is especially proud of his new Voodoo king cake, which has chocolate icing.
No matter the flavor, the thing you'll always find in your cake is a baby - a good luck symbol which means you're the king or queen for the day.
Traditionally, the one who finds the baby also is supposed to buy the next king cake.
"It's a fun time," Tortorice said. "When I bring them to customers, you'd think I was bringing gold."
Well, purple, green and gold.
"You should see people start following me when I bring a king cake into an office," said Tortorice, the owner of Rao's Bakery. "I make a lot of new friends doing that."
The famous symbol of Mardi Gras usually means there are good times to be had - long before and even after today's Fat Tuesday celebrations.
Market Basket and Kroger have been selling king cakes for the past several weeks and Tortorice said his company started making and shipping king cakes back in December and plan to keep it up for at least another week.
In that time, he estimates they've shipped about 1,500 king cakes - not to mention the ones that are selling in the stores.
From New York to California, Connecticut to Georgia and hundreds of places in between, Southeast Texans who have transplanted to other parts of the state and country or locals who have far flung families want to be able to laissez les bon temps roulette (let the good time roll), and they need a traditional Mardi Gras cake to do so.
Others, though, aren't really sure what they'll be getting when they order a king cake.
"Someone told me they thought it was a big donut with jelly in it," said Kristin Baker, who is in charge of shipping the cakes for Rao's.
The cakes are actually more similar to large cinnamon rolls and come in a variety of flavors and typically are iced with the purple, green and gold colors of Mardi Gras.
Tortorice is especially proud of his new Voodoo king cake, which has chocolate icing.
No matter the flavor, the thing you'll always find in your cake is a baby - a good luck symbol which means you're the king or queen for the day.
Traditionally, the one who finds the baby also is supposed to buy the next king cake.
"It's a fun time," Tortorice said. "When I bring them to customers, you'd think I was bringing gold."
Well, purple, green and gold.
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