Haute Sweets Patisserie is going back to its roots as Mardi Gras season gets underway.
New Orleans native and chef-owner Tida Pichakron has been churning out purple, yellow and green-sparkled king cakes for over a decade off Northwest Highway. In a 2024 interview with the Advocate, she summed up the tradition as “kind of very nostalgic.”
Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras in Louisiana, falls on Feb. 17 this year. The day marks the last hurrah of the Carnival season before the beginning of the Lenten fasting period for Catholics, and is typically celebrated with parades, plenty of alcohol and, in some cases, chicken-chasing. King cakes, a ubiquitous symbol of the celebration, often start to make their way onto the scene around the Feast of the Epiphany in January, which marks the arrival of the Three Kings in Christian tradition. And yes, that is indeed where the name stems from.
Pichakron uses a friend’s century-old family recipe for her king cakes. Preorders opened over the weekend, with pickup available from Jan 21. to Feb. 17. 10-inch ($45) king cakes, served in traditional style with only cinnamon, vanilla icing and sprinkles, can be ordered with or without a plastic baby inside (+ $0.50 for extras). Single-portion mini king cakes ($6.50) do not come with a baby, but customers can pay to have one placed on top of their cake.
For the first time ever this year, Pichakron and her team will also offer a 10-inch cream cheese-filled cake for an additional $10. For $5, both versions can be upgraded with Mardi Gras beads and six decorative plastic doubloons.
Customers looking for post-Mardi Gras pickup or those with orders of more than 12 cakes are asked to call Haute Sweets’ Northwest Highway Storefront. Regular orders may be placed online.
