{Embrace the Camera: February 24th}

With all of the excitement going on around us, I decided to surprise the kids with a King Cake. I mentioned yesterday that a King Cake is a traditional Mardi Gras food although, you can get them here year round. I am pretty sure that my kids were the only kids in their school who had never eaten King Cake but in my defense, there was a reason. I purposely waited until now for us to experience our first King Cake. I know, I’m not exactly the most “normal” mom out there but I really wanted to wait until we made it closer to Mardi Gras before we sampled our first King Cake. After all, it is a Mardi Gras tradition!!!



And here is our lesson for the day:

The making of a King Cake is a New Orleans tradition. It represents the three kings who brought gifts to (in Miss K’s words) baby Jesus. As a part of the celebration of Mardi Gras, it is traditional to bake an oval cake in honor of the three kings. The shape of a King Cake symbolizes the unity of faiths. Each cake is decorated in the 3 time-honored Mardi Gras colors. Purple represents justice, green represents faith, and gold represents power. A small plastic baby, symbolizing baby Jesus, is baked into each cake. It is said that the person who finds the baby in their slice of cake, will be rewarded with good luck. Whoever receives the baby in their piece of cake must in turn make or buy the next King Cake or throw the next party.


Here is our first King Cake experience!

If you have never had a King Cake, you must try one at least once!! I am kind of glad we waited until now because the goodness of this cake has not done me any favors in trying to fit into my cute jeans before My Jay makes his way back home this summer.


Our first King Cake was apple flavored. Did I mention how delicious it was? On Saturday we will try the traditional cinnamon flavored one and yes I am excited to experience that one too!! I think we are slowly on our way to becoming official Louisianans =]

Oh and I almost forgot, I don't know if you noticed in the picture but our baby was in the middle of the cake (I guess when you buy a cake, you are supposed to put the baby in before you share it with others ~ I'm still learning =]). Trav said that we all have good luck now because our baby Jesus was in the middle of the cake. I like that analogy! 

Happy Thursday!!!