Our office recently had two different kinds of king cakes from Gambino’s via King Cake Hub for king cake Friday. Joe Gambino’s is an old school New Orleans bakery that makes a fantastic Doberge cake (because they bought the recipe from a woman born to Hungarian-Jewish immigrants in St. Rose, LA—go figure). If you’ve never had a Doberge cake (pronounced “doh-bear-ge” or “DOUGH-bage” in New Orleans, baaaby), it’s New Orleans’ second most famous cake after king cake. Gambino’s is one of the Doh-Gs (see what I did there?) but that’s a story for another day. We’re not here to talk about Doberge, we’re here to talk about king cake, and talk about king cake we will. We have two in this review: Gambino’s/King Cake Hub exclusive “Epiphany” cake and Gambino’s Praline. I’m going to review them separately because they were quite different. Let’s dig in.

Epiphany: The Cake of Kings

This was another cake that I anticipated having one or two bites of and tossing the rest. And another epic fail on that front. When will I learn?? It was too delicious and I ate every bite.

The “Epiphany: The Cake of Kings” king cake was developed in a collaboration between Gambino’s and King Cake Hub, which is exactly what it sounds like—a heaven-like place where you can purchase all different kinds of king cakes at one convenient location. Sorry, they don’t take preorders and they don’t ship, but, y’all. They carry some of the best local brands, including some that I’ve already reviewed, including Bywater Bakery and Cannata’s, and other favorites like Caluda’s, Hi-Do Bakery, Breads on Oak, and Brennan’s. Hooray for convenience! Let me repeat myself. This cake can ONLY be purchased at King Cake Hub and not at Gambino’s. Now you know.

When I photographed this cake, I thought, wow, they were really stingy with icing. But I was wrong. It totally worked. The icing is cream cheese and it is quite sweet with what I thought was a hint of citrus. There was definitely a tart tanginess that made the cake sing. The dough was a really perfect consistency. It’s a danish dough and it was incredibly airy and soft. (I avoided using the “m” word, you’re welcome.) It was like eating a little cloud, but probably way more delicious. Looking at the cake, you might make the incorrect assumption that it is very plain and perhaps even boring. You would be wrong. I WAS WRONG. IT WAS DELICIOUS. 4.5 stars for the cake of kings!

Praline

I should have tried this one first, and I regret that. But I tried it second and it was disappointing after the wonderfully pleasant surprise that was the Epiphany cake. I found the dough to be dry in comparison. It wasn’t actually that dry, but the king of cakes had spoiled me. The icing was a very traditional white sugar icing with purple, green, and gold sprinkles. But, sigh, it lost me with the filling. I ate way more of this than I should trying to figure out what about the filling I didn’t like. It had a kind of thick/gluey consistency, which was a problem for me. The flavor wasn’t awful, but I did find that it had a bitter aftertaste (which pecans just do, honestly, so I guess that’s fair, but I’ve had plenty of praline fillings and pralines that weren’t bitter, so is it fair? Discuss.). I really couldn’t get over the texture of the filling and didn’t really enjoy the cake. 2 stars because I personally disliked the praline filling that much. Maybe you’ll like it. I said what I said.