While visiting NOLA, I bought a bunch of babies meant for cakes. Never used any in cakes, but I put one in a little glass jar that I then filled with 151 rum.
The alcohol melted the baby a bit. For years I displayed the baby in the jar, telling people it was an aborted fetus. Some people believed it.
My mom had surgery Monday and missed out on Fat Tuesday so we had paczki on Saturday. Our local grocery store carries them and we’ve never tried them (we always hit up a bakery on Tuesday) and they were surprisingly good. Even more surprising was me and mom finished off a half dozen in one go!
For Pancake Day, then, my boyfriend and I just had some frozen waffles. And Mardi-Gras-themed cupcakes.
Ok, someone needs to explain the baby-in-a-cake thing, because this is new to me.
In my neck of the woods, bismarks are jelly-filled. The cream-filled ones are called Boston creams or Bavarian creams.
There oughta be a law.
“King Cake” is a Mardis Gras (catholic?) thing with tradition being to have a plastic baby (Jesus?) baked in the cake.
The baby is a little plastic trinket similar to these. Mini Plastic Babies Baby Shower Favor Charms 12ct | Party City
It does represent the baby Jesus and is a lucky treasure. Whoever finds it buys the next king cake. In other times or other places, a bean, nut, or coin would be a traditional lucky token.
When I was in NOLA for Mardi Gras decades ago I was told that if you found the baby you had to throw the party next year.
Several stores here sell them. They’re all heavily coated with powdered sugar, which protects them from me.