Last month we gained a roommate when one of our besties came to town and needed a place to call home. Along with her adorably sweet puppy companion, she brought with her a list of king cakes to try this carnival season (stretching from January 6 to Mardi Gras Day, which is February 21 this year).

That list of king cakes evolved into a mission: we tasked ourselves with trying as many bakeries’ recipes as possible and finding out how they all stack up aginast each other. Matt and I are no strangers to king cake. We both grew up eating piece after piece of the fluffy cinnamony icing-laden goodness every single year—but we’ve certainly never taken this close a look at such a variety of them, until now. While the cakes pictured below may look more or less really similar, you may be surprised how much they vary in flavor profile, texture, and general yumminess.

With king cake season coming to an end on February 21st, we thought now would be a good time to share our findings with you, in case you want to get one or two more cakes in before the season’s up. And look, we only tried ten different cakes from eight different bakeries. We simply did not have the mouth space or stomach capacity or level of insulin to go beyond ten cakes in one month’s time. We are only regular humans just like you. So don’t yell at me if your favorite is left out!!! I don’t care! I’m not out here trying to die over this!!!

We took to rating the cakes based off of a five-baby system. For those unaware, king cakes come with a tiny plastic baby inside, meant to represent baby Jesus or good fortune depending on who you ask. In our system, the elusive 5-baby rating indicates a king cake that is indisputably perfect; a cake we would kill for. A cake we would die for. On the other end of the spectrum, receiving 0 or “partial” babies means, given the option, we’d rather not eat the cake at all. A cake so bad you would choose hunger over consumption? Oh dear.

Let’s begin.

Brennan’s Strawberry Cream Cheese King Cake

RATING: 1/4 of a baby. That’s one-quarter of one baby. A single limb.

NOTES: The most disappointing king cake we’ve ever had the great displeasure of consuming in our combined many years of life. The pink exterior is gorgeous (though not necessarily appetizing), but that’s about where the joy ends. Dive into this block of floury sadness teeth first and you’ll regret it. The filling tastes like someone dropped a teaspoon of strawberry jelly into a gallon of milk and then left it on the curb of Tchoupitoulas Street for the entirety of a hot New Orleans summer. What pairs best with a slice of this king cake? The garbage can.

WHERE: First and foremost, don’t. But if you’re curious… kingcakesbybrennans.com

*Brennan’s strawberry cream cheese filled king cake.*

Norma’s Guava & Cheese King Cake

RATING: 3-3/4 babies

NOTES: Certainly untraditional, this subtly sweet and slightly savory king cake delighted us with its rich flavors. While we struggled on how to rate this cake given its pretty significant departure from the flavor profile, texture, and structure of a traditional king cake, we ultimately gave it just shy of four babies as it was simply so delicious. Given that it’s not quite as sweet as a typical king cake, with a dough that resembles more of a crumbly coffee cake texture, it might not scratch the king cake itch if you’re really craving classic king cake, but it would make a delicious treat for breakfast.

WHERE: Norma’s Sweets Bakery

Hi-Do Bakery’s Cream Cheese king Cake

RATING: 4 babies

NOTES: The cake itself was pretty fantastic, though perhaps a little dry. The topping was very sprinkle-sugar heavy without a ton of icing, which made for a slightly messy eating experience since the sugar had nothing to stick to and just went all over the place. Some might enjoy the crunchy texture added by that abundance of sugar. Overall, though, the flavors were phenomenal and the cream cheese filling was a perfect consistency. The dough was brioche-adjacent and felt both classic and nuanced all at once. As for its slightly dry nature? Just pour yourself a glass of cold milk like the adult baby that you are.

WHERE: Hi-Do Bakery

Dong PhuonG’S STRAWBERRY KING CAKE

RATING: 4 babies

NOTES: Dong Phuong is the hottest thing on the New Orleans king cake scene right now. People line up outside of the bakery early in the morning for a cake, or drive across town to find a retailer that miraculously has one left after 10 a.m. Knowing all of that, we approached this one with high expectations. It’s worth noting that this cake left our home divided beyond repair. My personal take is that this is not all that good—not terrible, just not all that good. It’s a sickeningly sweet slab of dough covered in a thick layer of icing that tastes like it came out of a can before getting whipped into a fluffy cloud. However, I was the odd man out, seen as a fool by my peers. Matt and our roommate both enjoyed this king cake, noting how scrumptious and decadent it was and how the flavor profile was perfect. We did all agree it was veering towards too sweet though, so at least we had one consensus. It’s important to note here the strawberry filling may have done no favors in the too-sweet department, so perhaps opt for a traditional cake without a filling if you go for a DP. Four babies were awarded to this cake because I was under duress when we had to rate it and also everyone else liked it. But we all agreed it’s maybe a bit overrated—people go through great lengths to secure one of these cakes and it’s not the best king cake on our list.

WHERE: Dong Phuong King Cake Vendor Map

*Dong Phuong strawberry filled king cake.*

MANNY Randazzo’s Cream Cheese Filled King Cake + Traditional King Cake

RATING: 4-1/4 babies

NOTES: For starters, we had to wait half an hour in line to grab one of these cakes, so we got two: the traditional (plain) and the cream cheese filled. The review is applicable to both. We agreed this was a heavy hitter, a high roller, a big contender. The flavors were spot on, and the filling was delicious. The dough was a bit chewy, but in kind of a scrumptious way, not a tough way. That being said, there were a few weaknesses. First, in regards to the cream cheese filled cake, the filling is, like, on top of the cake instead of stuffed in the center of it? I imagine this was done to make sure the cream cheese is evenly distributed (filling distribution was most certainly a problem in some of our other cream cheese filled cakes), but it resulted in the topping being a hefty mix of cream cheese ‘filling’ + icing + sprinkles, which felt like a lot and made it a little sloppy. Second, the dough itself wasn’t super consistent. Some pieces were very thin and chewy while others were thicker and fluffier. I think in general the vibe we got from this cake was great flavors, maybe a bit rushed in the execution. All in all, it’s still a cake you could proudly bring to any gathering, even if the choice of sprinkles over sanding sugar gives this cake a little bit of a cheap look.

WHERE: Randazzo’s Bakery

Maurice’s Traditional New Orleans King Cake, Bavarian Cream Filled

RATING: 4-1/4 babies

NOTES: The topping of this cake is absolutely phenomenal with the perfect icing to sugar ratio. The dough was only subtly sweet which made for a great balance to both the filling and the topping. It tasted like the king cakes of our childhood and made us very very happy. It may have nabbed an additional 1/4th of a baby if it wasn’t packaged in the most inconvenient and messy plastic wrapping, and if the Bavarian cream filling had been more evenly distributed. Regardless, this is a cake we’d proudly bring to a social gathering this time of year. Knockout.

WHERE: Maurice French Pastries

*Maurice Bavarian cream filled king cake.*

Joe’s Cafe’s Traditional King Cake & Cream Cheese Filled King Cake

RATING: 4-1/2 babies

NOTES: This is it. The ultimate king cake experience for lovers of traditional king cake. The perfectly fluffy cinnamony-dough that toes the impossible line between moist and airy. Topped with a beautiful drizzle of icing and even distribution of sugar. This king cake won our hearts and our minds, somehow both indisputably classic and also unexpected. This cake is for winners, by winners. The only reason this cake was not awarded a 5-baby rating is because we believe and hope that someday, somewhere, we could find something better. Hope for a better future is an important part of the human experience, and if we already found the best king cake… what kind of world does that leave in front of us? This is the only cake we bought on two separate occasions—because we needed to try a second one to make sure the first one was actually that good. It is.

WHERE: Joe’s Cafe

*Joe’s Cafe cream cheese filled king cake.*

Honorable King Cake Mentions

The below king cakes don’t really meet our definition of “king cake” well enough to be rated along with the others, so we’re putting them in their own special little category.

Maurice’s French King Cake

RATING: 5 babies

NOTES: That’s right, our only 5-out-of-5 rating on here isn’t a New Orleans style king cake at all, which is why we felt comfortable awarding all 5 babies—because there’s no real competition. This is a traditional French king cake, meaning it’s much more a pastry and much less a cake. It’s basically a block of sweet and buttery pastry dough with a lovely and gentle almond flavor. The only downside here is that it’s really only great the day you get it from the bakery—given that it’s pastry it gets pretty stale pretty quick (think day-old croissant). But no problem there, just eat up buttercup.

WHERE: Maurice French Pastries

Mauthe’s Milk Lady King Cake Cheesecake

RATING: 3.9 babies

NOTES: Here’s the deal: Mauthe’s Milk Lady makes a banging cheesecake. We get their turtle cheesecakes and berry cheesecakes on a semi-regular basis and are always just over the moon with how delicious they are. Perfectly dense and smooth as velvet, their cakes offer supple bites of cheesecake joy. But I’m not sure we’re totally sold on the king cake cheesecake. The structure is as follows: a crust made of a very cinnamon-heavy smashed king cake that’s about 1/2” thick supporting their beautiful original cheesecake, topped with frosting and sprinkles. We all agreed the rating would be much higher without the frosting. Frosting on a cheesecake is just kind of weird and made for an all-too-sweet eating experience. Once we scraped the frosting off though? Pretty damn good. Mauthe’s if you’re reading this, I implore you: maybe just some sprinkles on top instead of the frosting situation?

WHERE: Langensteins on Metairie Road, Faubourg Fresh Market in Algiers Point (we recommend calling ahead before making the trip to make sure they’ve got ‘em!)

We hope you enjoyed this year’s king cake awards as much as we enjoyed doing the reseach! If you want more king cake content in your life, I suggest purchasing The Big Book of King Cake, which offers gorgeous photography and back stories to the myriad bakeries and restaurants that keep this New Orleans tradition alive!

The Official 2023 Probably This King Cake Awards