Welcome back for another exciting king cake review. This is something of a repeat but a repeat that is worth it. We are back at Caluda’s (part of the Randazzo family cabal) to review the Caluda’s Praline Cream Cheese king cake. Let’s begin!

You’ll recall that our only stop at Caluda’s thus far has been for the guava-filled king cake, and I specifically advised that if you haven’t had Caluda’s before, guava most likely was not where you should start. I stand by this, especially after eating the praline cream cheese. My wonderful colleague and king cake comrade returned some Tupperware to me recently after I shared some king cake with her. She returned it “the way [she] found it” by including a generous chunk of Caluda’s Praline Cream Cheese king cake. She told me this didn’t need a review, but I made a promise to y’all. All king cake that I consume gets reviewed. No exceptions!

Let’s start with the filling. I loved this filling! The pecan praline reminded me of my mom’s pecan pie. Not quite as good, of course, because my mom puts love and family secrets into her Thanksgiving and Christmas pecan pies, but it was definitely still reminiscent of that. The texture was even similar to pecan pie filling. Also, although it was very sweet (it has to be), it wasn’t sweet in the overdone saccharine way. There was PLENTY of cream cheese, at least in my slice. And these were real fillings, not toppings! 100 points to Caluda’s! I also thought the cream cheese filling was pretty perfect. There isn’t anything necessarily groundbreaking about the cream cheese; rather, it was how I would expect a traditional king cake cream cheese filling to present, although on the generous side in terms of the amount. The flavor was mild and tangy without being overly sweet, which is good because that would have just been unpleasant with the praline filling. Instead, they worked nicely together. And while it was admittedly a lot together, I personally really enjoyed it.

By the time I ate it, the cake must have been at least 3 days post-bake, and the dough held up surprisingly well. It obviously was not quite as sumptuous as a still-warm freshly baked cake would have been, but it was still really quite good. The dough, as is the Randazzo-family’s hallmark, had been braided and the cinnamon was there but not particularly prominent. Maybe it was just overshadowed by the more powerful flavors. But I wasn’t wanting for it, either.

There wasn’t a whole lot of icing on this particular slice and thank goodness there wasn’t, because I think I would have liked it a lot less. There really is only a hint of icing on this cake, with purple, green, and gold sprinkles.

If you’re keeping track at home, this is the second Caluda’s cake and the fifth on the Randazzo’s family tree. Caluda’s is making a strong showing and working its way up the Randazzo family list. I was torn between 4 and 4.5 stars. I decided on a conservative 4 because a fresh version would have been a bit better. 4 stars.