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On February 28, New Orleans and party lovers all over will celebrate Mardi Gras Day, or "Fat Tuesday" translated from the French. The Mardi Gras season actually begins on January 6, twelve days after Christmas when the Kings brought gifts to Jesus. Celebrations lead up to Mardi Gras Day, which is always 46 days before Easter and the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Lent is the period when many Christians give up indulgences, so some make the most of Fat Tuesday with lots of partying, eating and merriment. And king cakes are an integral part of that festival.
A king cake is an oval shaped cake made from twisted strands of cinnamon dough. It's topped with powdered sugar icing and sprinkled with purple, green and gold sugar. Each color has its own significance: purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.
The craziest part of this fun-lovin' cake is the baby baked in the cake. Yup, you read correctly: a small plastic baby is baked into the cake. Tradition goes that the person who gets the piece with the baby must buy the next king cake. Some people also believe that finding the baby also brings good luck.
Being the uninitiated Northerner that I am, I consulted my friend Lara, my Southern Style go-to gal, about king cakes. "I have made one in my life and eaten many," she says. That's expert enough for me! She says that when she made her king cake she decided to make her own colored sugars instead of splurging on the pre-made variety.
"I did my own just by dropping food coloring into bowls of sugar and mixing them up and then drying between paper towels. I'm sure that is not a professional way to dye sugar, but it worked for me. And, in fact, I don't think I dried them all the way, so that some of the coloring from the sugar dripped onto the icing but it looked cool." Sounds like a tie-dyed king cake! Groovy! I love it!
Actually, Lara was pretty much on the money about dying her sugar. The keys are to make sure it's mixed really well, use as little food coloring as possible and make sure you spread it out sparsely so that it dries out all the way. You can even put your colored sugar on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet in an oven with a pilot light. Be sure to toss the sugar around every so often so it all can dry evenly. Voila! You've got yourself colored sugar at a fraction of the cost of the cake decorating supply store type! Store it in a dry container just like you would regular sugar. Use it throughout the rest of the year as a sprinkle topping on cupcakes, cookies and ice cream. Have fun with it!
And I'd just like to wish the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast a joyous Mardi Gras Carnival Season. Best Wishes to you all.
You can find recipes for Mardi Gras and King Cake at CDKitchen.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/rebecca-michaels/226-fat-tuesday/
My Big Fat Tuesday
A king cake is an oval shaped cake made from twisted strands of cinnamon dough. It's topped with powdered sugar icing and sprinkled with purple, green and gold sugar. Each color has its own significance: purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.
The craziest part of this fun-lovin' cake is the baby baked in the cake. Yup, you read correctly: a small plastic baby is baked into the cake. Tradition goes that the person who gets the piece with the baby must buy the next king cake. Some people also believe that finding the baby also brings good luck.
Being the uninitiated Northerner that I am, I consulted my friend Lara, my Southern Style go-to gal, about king cakes. "I have made one in my life and eaten many," she says. That's expert enough for me! She says that when she made her king cake she decided to make her own colored sugars instead of splurging on the pre-made variety.
"I did my own just by dropping food coloring into bowls of sugar and mixing them up and then drying between paper towels. I'm sure that is not a professional way to dye sugar, but it worked for me. And, in fact, I don't think I dried them all the way, so that some of the coloring from the sugar dripped onto the icing but it looked cool." Sounds like a tie-dyed king cake! Groovy! I love it!
Actually, Lara was pretty much on the money about dying her sugar. The keys are to make sure it's mixed really well, use as little food coloring as possible and make sure you spread it out sparsely so that it dries out all the way. You can even put your colored sugar on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet in an oven with a pilot light. Be sure to toss the sugar around every so often so it all can dry evenly. Voila! You've got yourself colored sugar at a fraction of the cost of the cake decorating supply store type! Store it in a dry container just like you would regular sugar. Use it throughout the rest of the year as a sprinkle topping on cupcakes, cookies and ice cream. Have fun with it!
And I'd just like to wish the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast a joyous Mardi Gras Carnival Season. Best Wishes to you all.
You can find recipes for Mardi Gras and King Cake at CDKitchen.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/rebecca-michaels/226-fat-tuesday/