Good morning, king cake babies. I have quite the serendipitous tale for you today. My colleague called me one morning very recently said that, as a Latin guy, he needed to mix up the office cake rotation. And mix it up he did with the Caluda’s Guava King Cake. The important context here is that my colleague is Cuban by birth and loves to share food (one of my favorite traits of any coworker). As a result, our office is frequently treated to Cuban delicacies.

Back to king cake. Your question: is the Caluda’s guava king cake a Cuban delicacy? My answer: No, no it is not. But also I want to highlight the fact that it is barely three weeks into the carnival season and I am posting my second guava king cake review. Seriously, who would have thought three weeks ago that by January 26, you’d be reading this and thinking “ANOTHER guava king cake? That old chestnut!” What’s even weirder is that he brought in this king cake on THE VERY SAME DAY that another colleague brought me the slice of the other guava-filled king cake from Empanola. I obviously ended up splitting my Empanola slice with him so he could compare the guava fillings.

I’m very glad we got through our Intro to Randazzo’s Legal Theories yesterday, because—yes, folks—Caluda’s is a tasty little branch on the delicious Randazzo family king cake tree. I can hear you out-of-towners thinking to yourselves, “wow, how many branches can this king cake family tree possibly have?” Oh, you sweet summer child. Just you wait.

Because virtually all of the Randazzo Family King Cake Tree king cakes are generally very similar (and quite excellent across the board), I consider Caluda’s to be a NOLA staple. This is mostly because the dough is pretty consistently fantastic, which I personally attribute to the fact that Caluda’s (like Manny Randazzo’s) actually braids their dough. There is also an element of a Caluda’s king cake that has a nostalgic quality to me and reminds me of eating king cake as a kid, which is probably an abundance of sugar.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever had a subpar slice of Caluda’s. A Caluda’s king cake is less traditional than Manny’s counterpart, and they come in all kinds of crazy flavors if you’re on team #givemefillings. And they aren’t all that difficult to get your hands on, either. In my opinion, this is an excellent choice for those I-need-a-king-cake-in-a-pinch moments, especially if you want something a bit more “outside the box.” Which, by the way, would be a great proprietary name for a king cake shop or a signature non-traditional king cake, right, New Orleanians? Why am I giving all my best ideas away for free?? I’ll explain this reference to any out-of-towners who feel lost here.

Before I really dig into this review, I want to note that the office was quite divided on this king cake. I think I talked to more people who didn’t love it than those who did. And a significant portion of the cake was still in the kitchen the following day, which is basically the ultimate king cake insult. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, a day-old king cake in the office kitchen is… the opposite of imitation, or something like that. Perhaps that idiom didn’t work here, but you get the idea. So you should assess the following review with this in mind.

My initial reaction to this was that this king cake is a delight. First of all, it’s beautiful. I just love the colors (I don’t consider myself to be particularly feminine in my personal style, so can someone please explain to me why I love things that are pink as much as I do? I don’t understand myself.) Also, check out the shape of the slice and appreciate the difference that hand-braided dough can make!

 This was a super fresh cake and it showed. The dough was outstanding. The combination of the flavors was delicious and the dough was chewy in a light way. It is bready yet somehow I have never found it to be dry at all… but this was, of course, an exceptionally fresh cake, and as I’ve already told you, this can skew anyone’s opinion on the quality of the cake, especially when considering the dough.

The filling is a filling and not a topping! Here, there are ribbons of guava filling running through the cake in a way that I wish more bakeries would fill their cake. This filling wasn’t even piped in as a single gooey ring; rather, it was incorporated beautifully into the layers of the cake. The guava had a wonderful, jammy consistency that was sweet without being overly sugary. And the guava flavor was very prominent but not overpowering. It really was a treat and fun to try something a bit different. The icing is on the runnier side but still appeared to be a fairly traditional white sugar icing (although not as thick) that had been colored pink. It was also topped with sugar crystals that added a satisfying crunch to the texture.

If you’re going to try one guava king cake this year (wow, what a time to be alive) I am going to recommend that you try the one from Empanola because it is SO interesting. And if you haven’t tried a Caluda’s king cake before, this may not be the first one you want to try. Perhaps a cream cheese-filled Caluda’s king cake is more your speed, and I respect that. But if you are like me (and my colleague) and like a little variety in your life, this is a king cake you should check out. 4 stars.