對於新奧爾良的麵包店，今年的前幾個月是最繁忙的

隨著該國其他地區盯著一月的桶，被新年的決議震撼，這座城市正駛入狂歡節

The first few months of the year are among the busiest for bakeries in New Orleans. As the rest of the country stares down the barrel of January, sobered by New Year’s resolutions, the city is just easing into Carnival, the season of revelry and indulgence that lasts from Three Kings Day (also known as Epiphany) to Fat Tuesday, which immediately precedes the start of Lent. The weeks are marked by parties, by parades, and by pastry, most specifically king cake: a wreath-shaped confection made with a yeasted dough—the kind you’d use for brioche or sticky buns—and finished with white icing and a shower of crystallized sugar that’s dyed purple, green, and gold.

一年中的前幾個月是新奧爾良麵包店最繁忙的。隨著該國其他地區盯著一月的桶，被新年的決議震撼，這座城市剛剛陷入狂歡節，這是狂歡和放縱的季節，持續了從三個國王日（也稱為epiphany）到星期二的胖子，直接在星期二之前，這立即開始了借出。這幾週由聚會，遊行和糕點，尤其是國王蛋糕的標誌：一種用酵母麵團製成的花環形糖果，這是您用於奶油蛋捲或粘性麵包的那種，並搭配白色糖粉和結晶的糖淋浴，染成紫色的紫色，綠色和金色。

King cake is rooted in religious tradition—it’s a Catholic custom that’s believed to have been adapted from an ancient Roman one—but in New Orleans it’s also a “huge economic boon,” Bronwen Wyatt, a baker and a recipe developer, told me recently. “Typically, Thanksgiving through Christmas is a busy time—and then, in other parts of the country, it dies.” It’s considered sacrilege, even among the secular, to make or eat a king cake before or after Carnival. In the past decade or so, the season has become a frenzied pageant of baking innovation.

國王蛋糕植根於宗教傳統，這是一種天主教的習俗，被認為是從古羅馬人改編的 - 但在新奧爾良，這也是“巨大的經濟恩惠”，麵包師和食譜開發商Bronwen Wyatt最近告訴我。 “通常，到聖誕節期的感恩節是一個繁忙的時光，然後，在該國其他地區，它就死了。”在狂歡節之前或之後，即使是世俗的祭品，甚至在世俗中也被認為是犧牲品。在過去的十年左右的時間裡，本賽季已成為烘焙創新的瘋狂選美大賽。

“Even the larger king-cake bakeries are pushing the boundaries now,” Wyatt said as she stood in the kitchen of her shotgun-style Treme house. She poked at a mass of dough that had been proofing in a pan, deeming it more than ready to go into the oven. For several years, Wyatt sold king cakes through a small business called Bayou Saint Cake. Now she offers a king-cake-making class online, adding a new flavor—Funfetti, honey-wheat pretzel, sweet potato with cardamom meringue—to her repertoire each season.

懷亞特（Wyatt）站在shot彈槍式的Treme House的廚房中時說：“即使是更大的國王麵包店也正在推動界限。”她戳了一塊在鍋中證明的麵團，認為它不僅是準備進入烤箱。幾年來，懷亞特通過一家名為Bayou Saint Cake的小型企業出售了國王蛋糕。現在，她每個季節都在網上提供一門國王製作課程，增加了一種新的味道 - Funfetti，蜂蜜麥椒鹽脆餅，帶有荳蔻蛋糕的紅薯的紅薯 - 每個季節。

Half an hour later, we cut into slices so hot that I burned the roof of my mouth, and so luscious with sour cream, butter, and cinnamon that I didn’t mind. Among Wyatt’s mise en place was a quart container full of tiny gold plastic babies. In ancient Rome, the antecedent to the king cake was baked with a dried bean inside it; whoever found it in their slice would be crowned king or queen for the day. In France, the bean in a gâteau or a galette des rois (the latter made with puff pastry) is known as a fève, meaning “fava.” The word has become a catchall for any tiny trinket hidden in a cake. In New Orleans, the most common féve is a pink plastic baby, popularized by a bygone chain called McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppes and often assumed to represent the infant Jesus—though, in 1990, the company’s former president claimed otherwise. “Why we picked this, I don’t know, it was cute,” he told the Times-Picayune.

半小時後，我們切成瞭如此熱，以至於我燒了嘴的屋頂，我不介意的酸奶油，黃油和肉桂粉如此甜美。懷亞特（Wyatt）的Mise En Place中有一個夸脫的容器，裡面裝滿了微小的金塑料嬰兒。在古羅馬，國王蛋糕的先例被烤在裡面，裡面有一個乾豆。誰在他們的切片中發現它的人將被加冕為國王或王后。在法國，gâteau或Galette des Rois中的豆（後者用泡芙製成）被稱為fève，意為“ fava”。這個詞已成為隱藏在蛋糕中的任何小飾品的雜物。在新奧爾良，最常見的féve是一個粉紅色的塑料嬰兒，由一條名為McKenzie的糕點店的臨時連鎖店普及，通常假定代表嬰兒耶穌 - 儘管在1990年，該公司的前總統在1990年宣稱。 “為什麼我們選擇這個，我不知道，這很可愛，”他告訴《泰晤士報》。

Per local tradition, the person who gets the fève is responsible for bringing a king cake to the next party, or to the office, or to school, where it’s served as a weekly Carnival treat. “Everyone hoped they didn’t get the baby, because it meant you had to get the next king cake, and we were always broke,” a New Orleans native named Bryan Wilson told me. “When I share a king cake outside of NOLA, everyone wants the baby—and nobody ever gets the next cake.”

按照當地的傳統，獲得fève的人負責將國王蛋糕帶到下一個聚會，辦公室或學校，並在學校用作每週一次的狂歡節。 “每個人都希望他們沒有生孩子，因為這意味著你必須得到下一個國王蛋糕，而且我們總是破產，”新奧爾良的本地人布萊恩·威爾遜（Bryan Wilson）告訴我。 “當我在諾拉（Nola）外共享一個國王蛋糕時，每個人都想要嬰兒 - 沒有人得到下一個蛋糕。”

The February days I spent in the city were mostly muggy and gray, punctuated by downpours, but my spirit couldn’t be dampened as I zigzagged all over town. King cake found me even when I wasn’t looking: at a kiosk at the airport, which sold individually wrapped slices and nips of king-cake-flavored rum; at dinner at Brigtsen’s, a Creole restaurant uptown, where king-cake bread pudding was a dessert special. Upon waking at Hotel Peter and Paul, on the grounds of a refurbished Catholic church in the Marigny, I stumbled over to the Elysian Bar, a restaurant in the old rectory. As the young resident baker, Curtis Litwiller, plaited ropes of dough, he explained that his king-cake recipe was inspired by coffee cake but also by East Asian milk breads, which use a water roux to insure an extra-fluffy crumb.

我在這座城市度過的二月份大部分是崎and的灰色和灰色，被傾盆大雨打斷了，但是當我在整個城鎮上鋸齒狀時，我的精神無法受到潮濕。國王蛋糕即使在我不看的時候也找到了我：在機場的一個售貨亭，該機場出售了單獨包裹的餅乾和國王蛋糕朗姆酒的nips；在Brigtsen's的晚餐時，一家克里奧爾餐廳（Creole Restaurant）上城的餐廳，國王烤麵包布丁是甜點特別的。在馬里尼（Marigny）的一座翻新天主教會的理由下，彼得和保羅酒店醒來後，我偶然發現了舊教區的一家餐廳的Elysian Bar。正如年輕的居民麵包師柯蒂斯·萊特維勒（Curtis Litwiller）的辮子麵團繩一樣，他解釋說，他的國王蛋糕食譜的靈感來自咖啡蛋糕，也受到東亞牛奶麵包的啟發，這些奶油奶油麵包使用水roux來確保額外的飽滿的麵包屑。

At Ayu Bakehouse, I enjoyed a king-cake latte, topped with colored sugar, and a wedge of “Croissant City” king cake, made from a laminated dough. I sampled a savory variety at Bywater Bakery, made by stuffing a garlic-bread dough with a creamy mixture of shrimp and crawfish. (The Parmesan cheese on top was dyed in the Mardi Gras colors.) At King Cake Hub, a pop-up in a Mid-City brewery which carries cakes from dozens of bakeries, old and new, accessories for sale included copies of The Big Book of King

在Ayu Bakehouse，我享受了一杯咖啡拿鐵，上面放著有色糖，還有一個用層壓麵團製成的“羊角面城”王蛋糕。我在Bywater Bakery品嚐了一種鹹味的品種，該品種是通過塞滿蝦和小龍蝦的奶油混合物來製成的。 （頂部的帕爾馬干酪奶酪染成狂歡節顏色。）在國王蛋糕中心，這是一個中城市啤酒廠的彈出式彈出式彈出式彈出式，該啤酒廠攜帶了數十個麵包店的蛋糕，新舊的配件出售，包括國王大書的副本