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King Cake Judicata: Antoine's

Posted on: Jan 23, 2023
News: News
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My partner brought a traditional king cake to the office in addition to our office selections from Bywater Bakery (see previous post). Now, the people who voluntarily purchase king cakes and bring them to the office are the real MVPs, so let’s take a moment to appreciate this act of kindness. Also, if you live in Louisiana and think to yourself, “Wow, I would love to try that king cake, but what will I do with an entire king cake after I eat one (or four) slices?” The answer, my friends, is to take it to your office and share the bounty with your coworkers. Sharing is caring.

I will be very straightforward and say at the outset of this review that I had tried Antoine’s in years past and didn’t particularly enjoy it. In the past, I found it too sweet and a bit dry. This brings me to a key tenet of king cake reviews that I’m glad I have the opportunity to address early on. It’s going to sound obvious but it rarely gets considered when comparing king cakes. Are you ready? THE FRESHNESS OF THE CAKE IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE. If you get a freshly baked traditional cake from, well, nearly anywhere (even Rouses), it will probably be delicious. If you get a very awesome cake and eat a slice after three days, it will be significantly less awesome. A hack for this is to pop that three-day-old slice into the microwave for five seconds (not three, not seven, but five) which will bring it back to life.

But I digress. The point here is that if you try a king cake and don’t love it (especially if the reason you don’t love it is because it’s a bit dry), you may have just tried it at the wrong time. And you should try it again. Which brings me to Antoine’s king cake. This was my fourth and final slice of king cake yesterday. Antoine’s is “traditional” style king cake, which in this instance means that it has a consistency somewhere between bread and cake and lots of cinnamon flavor with a white sugar frosting. (Yes, there are multiple variations on “traditional”—more on that later.) My friends, this was not dry. It was fresh and delicious. The consistency of the cake was perfect. It was still on the very sweet side, so if that’s your thing, you will love this. I will say that I was planning on having one bite (for the cause) and tossing the rest, but before I knew it, that thing was gone in three bites. And as I finished the last [very sugary] bite, I thought to myself, I like Antoine’s king cake. 4 stars.