Welcome to another edition of “That’s not a king cake!” I’ll remind you again that I’m reviewing all things king cake and king cake-adjacent this year. I completely understand the inclination to resist king cakes that aren’t king cakes. But I also encourage you to open your mind, eschew your previously held king cake biases, and welcome king cakes that aren’t king cakes into your life (during carnival, that is). Today, I bring you the king cakest non-king cake that has ever not king caked. It is Beth Biundo’s King Cake Pound Cake.

Beth Biundo (@bethbiundo on Instagram) is a local baker/pastry chef/awesome person who now her owns bakery, Beth Biundo Sweets, which is located on Baronne Street (near the giant Martin’s, for you locals). Beth used to be the pastry chef at Lilette in New Orleans, a French restaurant which has historically had some of the best desserts in the city, in my humble opinion. Beth now specializes in cakes, cupcakes, cookies, tarts (my favorite), and pound cakes. My family loves to pick up a Beth Biundo cake for a special occasion. She does gorgeous layered cakes that are impossibly tall and look like edible works of art. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention her tarts, which range from seasonal fresh fruit, to chocolate chess meringue, to Nutella. I mean, come on. But Beth’s baking really shines in one of the more simple recipes: the pound cake. Usually, the pound cakes (which are in seasonal flavors) come in a traditional loaf style. And y’all, let me be clear here. Beth Biundo has mastered the pound cake. I’m not really sure there is a better pound cake on this earth than the ones Beth Biundo comes up with.

My colleague, who has truly shown her dedication to The Cause, brought in the King Cake Pound Cake. This was a rare addition to my list in the sense that it wasn’t one on my radar despite my being quite familiar with the baker. And I’m so, so glad my colleague brought this in. It makes sense that so far this year, she has brought in two cakes that I probably wouldn’t have bought for myself and which ended up being among my favorites. She is the kind of person that is in the know about everything, from music, to food, to things that you weren’t sure were cool until you realized that she likes them and then you realized they are very cool, probably just because she likes them. The point here is that my my colleague has great taste and you should trust her. And trust her I did, although I obviously went into this knowing what to expect from Beth’s pound cake credentials. Onto the cake.

According to the website, this is a Buttermilk pound cake with a cinnamon sour cream filling, vanilla ice, and purple, green, and gold sugar. Beth also sells a king cake loaf, but the one Betsy brought in was served in a ring, which was cool because it made it more king-cake like. Friends, I ended up eating three entire slices of this because I had to figure out what exactly was going on, and that’s a very good thing. Also, this was the first time this year that I actually got the baby, which had been baked into the cake (a rarity these days, for liability reasons; you get it, lawyers).

Let’s first talk about the cake. I won’t say dough because this is a cake cake. It’s a pound cake. But what a pound cake it is! The texture of the pound cake is just stunning. Truly, I was stunned. I don’t know how much buttermilk is in this, and I don’t know what buttermilk does get this consistency, but it’s the pound cake of dreams. I have to say it. It is moist. It is moist, and I just said moist twice, three times. And I don’t even care because it would be a travesty not to acknowledge that. This is a creamy pound cake and now I’ve said so many borderline gross things that I barely even know myself anymore. And I still don’t care because I have to do the cake justice.

After demolishing the first piece (for the reasons already articulated), I had to get a second piece to determine what, exactly, was going on in terms of the icing. I thought I tasted cream cheese but wasn’t sure, so I went to get another slice to see if I could figure it out. I then pulled up the website description, in which Beth Biundo tells me that this cake has vanilla icing… I maintain my position that there is at least something cream cheese-adjacent to the icing; in any event, however, it is more complex than your typical white sugar icing. There is a topping that was somewhat streusel-esque with an almost crunchy texture (no doubt aided by plenty of sugar). There are also adorable gold sprinkles in different shapes in addition to the purple, green, and gold icing.

Now onto the filling. I’m going to be a bit blunt here, this isn’t “filling” as I’ve described it in my reviews so far, which is to say that it’s not a traditional filling in king cake terms, and I think most of you would agree. On my initial piece, for example, I didn’t even realize it was there. This is primarily because the filling is baked into (and basically indistinguishable from) the cake itself. This, my friends, is why I needed the third piece. And after being spotted by my colleague while cutting myself a third piece, I ran from the office kitchen yelling “I have to get it right!” The cinnamon was incredibly prominent but was not overpowering at all. All the flavors came together really well.

Overall, this honestly reminded me of a classic coffee cake. It was super fresh and absolutely delicious and I ate all three pieces. I love that Beth Biundo made a pound cake that is 100% “her” and that isn’t a king cake but still definitely is, somehow. 4.5 stars.

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