We have a New Orleans-style King Cake at work today. King Cake, as you may know, traditionally contains a small charm shaped like a baby. If all goes well, the baby is discovered (not swallowed) by some lucky person, who has to bring the cake next year.
As we were eating, discussion ensued:
Co-Worker 1: Ooh, I’m gonna bite down on the baby Jesus, I know it…
Co-Worker 2: It’s not the baby Jesus!
CW1: It’s the baby Jesus!
CW2: It is NOT.
CW1: Well, if it ain’t the baby Jesus, who is it, then?
CW2: It’s just a baby.
So I ask you: Is there a factual answer to this question? Who’s the baby? Is it supposed to be the the baby Jesus, or does it just represent some unlucky child who fell into a vat of cake batter and colored sugar?
According to Wikipedia, “In the US Gulf Coast since the 1950s, the most common trinket has been a small plastic baby. Many people say this represents the baby Jesus, tied in to the connection with Epiphany. Many people attach no particular religious significance to the cake or trinket.”
So, it’s a baby which is somehow associated with kingship, traditionally served at the time of a religious observance related to the recognition of the infant Jesus as a king, in a region where many cultural traditions are drawn from various aspects of Christianity. That sounds like a pretty safe bet to me, that the baby was at least originally intended to be Jesus.
Also, the kings of the King Cake are the three magi and, according to the bake shop menu I read yesterday, the cake is circular in representation of the circuitous route they took to Bethlehem so as not to lead roman troops to the baby’s location.
They’ve had this Twelfth-Night tradition for a long time-- in the 17th century it was just a bean or a ring. I think a tiny plastic baby is more recent.
"There are many English references to the custom of electing a Twelfth Day monarch by means of a bean or pea, and the ‘king’ is mentioned in royal accounts as early as the reign of Edward II.’ Clement A. Miles, Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance (New York: Dover, [1912] 1976, 338). That’s just an off-the-shelf reference; it’s fairly well-documented in books on English customs and traditions.
I’ve lived in New Orleans all my life. I don’t actually recall it being called “Baby Jesus.” We just say “watch out, you might get the baby.” I suppose it could represent the baby Jesus. Oh, and when you get it around here, you don’t bring the King Cake the next year, you bring it at the next gathering. Traditionally at schools or businesses where I experienced, someone brings a King Cake on Friday during Carnival season and then whoever gets the baby has to bring the King Cake the next Friday.
It is not specifically an English tradition, but one shared widely across Europe (from Wikipedia:“Related culinary traditions are the tortell of Catalonia, the gâteau des Rois in Provence or the galette des Rois in the northern half of France, and the Greek vasilopita. The galette des Rois is made with puff pastry and frangipane (while the gâteau des Rois is made with brioche and candied fruits). A little bean was traditionally hidden in it, a custom taken from the Saturnalia in the Roman Empire: the one who stumbled upon the bean was called “king of the feast.” In the galette des Rois, since 1870 the beans have been replaced by porcelain and, now, plastic figurines; while the gâteau des Rois often contains both a bean and a figurine.”)
Here in Switzerland the Dreikönigskuchen (three kings cake) usually contains a plastic figurine representing a king or queen.
Ok, old Epiphany/12th Night custom, all over Europe, at least back into early modern era (16th-17th c), related to ‘inversion rituals’ (let us descend into anthropology) in which someone unexpected gets the power for the day (see also ‘boy bishop’ or ‘donkey-pope’ traditions for the Feast of the [slaughter of the] Innocents or other holidays.
Why it’s ‘associated with the cajuns’ in this corner of the woods. . . probably the French immigrants were more likely to introduce heavy old Catholic traditions to the eastern seaboard than Anglo mostly- and sometimes-extremely protestants? Related: what does Mardi Gras have to do with New Orleans specifically? Not much, of course, unless you’re a protestant in the US, in which case you have a bit less context to work with.