12th Night, King Cakes and a Learning Experience

Today is “National King Cake Day”, based on “12th Night”, the twelfth night after Christmas, where the counting to 12 begins on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day (the day after Christmas). The next day is Epiphany, which is the day the 3 Wise Men arrived to honor the newborn King. That King is the center of the king cake tradition and the whole celebration starts on 12th night, the official start of the Mardi Gras season. Mardi Gras is a celebratory time in which perhaps anything goes, but all of that stops on Ash Wednesday, when the solemnity begins with Lent in the run-up to Easter and the Resurrection. 

It can all be a bit confusing because these traditions are a HUGE mashup of religion and paganism with some Shakespeare thrown in (because of his play, Twelfth Night), but we’re just looking at the societal celebratory nature of it right now, and just a tiny part of that – the king cake.

King cake has been around during Mardi Gras season all my life, as I grew up in Southeast Texas, not all that far from Cajun-land and New Orleans. You can find mass-produced, sloppily-decorated, super-sweet king cakes in most grocery stores starting in mid-January.

King cakes are so ubiquitous at this time of year that I stopped noticing them years ago and didn’t give any thought to their backstory or meaning. But now I understand a lot more about them for a very serendipitous reason.

Let me tell you that story.

I work in corporate America but my passions lie with writing and recipe creation, and I dream of publishing a cookbook someday. I’ve figured all that out in my decade of blogging here on the pages of Glover Gardens. Last winter, I was thrilled to attend a conference in Gulfport, Mississippi called Homegrown: A Writer’s Exchange: 2025. I speak at conferences all the time in my professional capacity, but not writers’ conferences, so this was special. This event would be one where I could learn more about my passions. I was especially interested in a long panel session in which several food writers and cookbook authors would share their origin stories and give advice to aspiring food writers like me. The panel was to be moderated by Malcolm White, one of the hosts of Deep South Dining, a radio show on Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) Think Radio that I always tune in to when we’re at Gumbo Cove in Bay St. Louis, MS. Malcolm and his cohost, Carol Puckett, know food and know how to talk about it.

So – I was very excited! But sadly, misfortune befell all of the authors who were to speak in the panel, save one. There were illnesses, travel plans that didn’t land when and where they should, and a death in the family in a far-away country. The one author who showed up for the panel was Matt Gaines, who wrote “The Big Book of King Cake”. This was the book I was least interested in, because I didn’t really know much about king cakes except that they had neon food glitter on them and were very sweet. I was disappointed that I had come all the way from Texas to hear just this one author.

Well.

As in many other situations in my life in which I devolved momentarily to my petty side, my snobbishness was misplaced and ill-informed, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong. The session with only Matt Gaines was an amazing 90 minutes in which I learned about the way he had landed on his masterpiece, the methodical approach he took to finding “the best king cake” to bring to a party, how he evolved from a blogger to an author of a best-selling food-based coffee table book, and most importantly, what an open and generous human he is. It was an excellent interview, expertly and deftly managed by Malcolm White’s curious and probing questions.

The author’s discussion of his first book included a corollary in which told us about how and why he then wrote “The Little Book of King Cake”, a children’s book with heart-warming and profound truths for children (and adults). His stories during the session were accessible vignettes laced with warmth, humanity and humility, and I was enchanted. As soon as the session was over, I rushed him to do a fan-girl thing, and then I bought both of his books at the bookstore. You can find it on Amazon here.

I meant to do a blog post about all of this soon afterward, but life got in the way (as it does), so this 2026 National King Cake Day seems like the next best time to share all of this.

I’ve become a king cake fan as a result of Matt Gaines sharing the history of this special pastry and his journey to showcase it. I also developed a deep understanding the the king cake experience is vastly different in New Orleans and its close neighbors than it is here in Southeast Texas. There is a broad and diverse group of king cake makers and bakers, and locals all have their own favorites. People are willing to wait in line for their favorite king cakes, and there’s even a place called King Cake Hub. Check out this article from NOLA.com: Photos: King Cake frenzy, New Orleans kicks off Carnival on 12th Night.

The stories are fascinating! And you can see from this page about the baby in king cakes that no stone goes unturned in this modern ‘let them eat cake’ story.

There are even savory versions of king cake! I’m inspired to fire up the test kitchen here at Glover Gardens and see what I can concoct that honors, leverages and stretches the king cake ideals.

So on 12th Night in 2026, National King Cake Day, I join the legions honoring the myriad mashup of traditions that bring us these celebrations. In fact, we had our own version of king cakes tonight, leveraging muffins from my Glover Gardens Beyond Banana Bread recipe and some Mardi Gras decorations. It brought a festive atmosphere to a January sandwich night.

I’m planning on learning to make traditional king cakes this season, and then I’ll create a Glover Gardens version or two, including a savory one. More to come!

© 2026, Glover Gardens