[Image Provided by Alexis Shook and Kathy Bradshaw]

King Cake and Beyond: Local Restaurants Take Carnival Cuisine to New Heights

16:05 February 05, 2018
By: Alexis Shook and Kathy Bradshaw

We all love king cake, but sometimes you want to spruce up the old favorite or have a new take on a classic. And these days, more and more local restaurants are learning to push the king cake envelope and get creative. Take Compère Lapin, for instance, where you can drink your king cake in frozen form. It's hard to exclude adult beverages from Mardi Gras, and Nina Compton's popular restaurant has got you covered with their Babycakes Breakfast Daiquiri.

You can start off your Fat Tuesday morning with a nice Carnival buzz drinking this tasty, king cake-inspired frozen concoction.

King Cake and Beyond: Local Restaurants Take Carnival Cuisine to New Heights
[Image Provided by Alexis Shook and Kathy Bradshaw]

Abigail Gullo is Compère Lapin's head bartender and the drink's creator. "It's based on what we all have for breakfast during Mardi Gras: coffee, booze, and king cake," she said.

Gullo is also a big baseball fan and was excited to give a shout-out to one of her favorite teams, the New Orleans Babycakes. "I named this drink after the team, even though it's never king cake and baseball season at the same time, which is upsetting," joked Gullo.

Babycakes Breakfast Daiquiri:
Cocktail and Sons king cake syrup
Cathead Pecan vodka
Cold brew coffee from French Truck
Borghetti Espresso Liqueur
Coconut cream

If morning drinking isn't your thing, there's also the Cherry Bomb, which was inspired by the walking krewe, the Cherry Bombs. Every year, Gullo devotes one of her daiquiris to a Mardi Gras krewe. (Last year's drink was based on the Rolling Elvi.) But in case morning drinking is your thing, the Cherry Bomb Daquiri is also available all day.

Cherry Bomb Daiquiri:
Gin
Tonic syrup
Cherry syrup
Cherry brandy
Tattersall Sour Cherry Liqueur
Pineapple and lemon

Both drinks are topped with edible glitter (where else but in New Orleans can you eat glitter?), and in the case of the Babycakes Breakfast, a plastic baby in either black or white.

Drinks are available now through Mardi Gras.

King Cake and Beyond: Local Restaurants Take Carnival Cuisine to New Heights
[Image Provided by Alexis Shook and Kathy Bradshaw]

Also, if you want a Carnival dessert, but you're tired of the usual suspects in king cake, DTB on Oak Street offers a soufflé version of the Mardi Gras staple. After all, what's the worst Mardi Gras tragedy after road closures, Uber fare surges, and beads in the face? Dry king cake! Well, DTB's soufflé fixes that last problem for good. This individual-sized dessert is the lightest, fluffiest, creamiest, most divine variety of king cake you'll find. It's sort of like king cake meets bread pudding meets mousse. And they pour a crème anglaise on top right at the table, so it ends up even creamier.

King Cake and Beyond: Local Restaurants Take Carnival Cuisine to New Heights
[Image Provided by Alexis Shook and Kathy Bradshaw]
King Cake and Beyond: Local Restaurants Take Carnival Cuisine to New Heights
[Image Provided by Alexis Shook and Kathy Bradshaw]

DTB stands for Down the Bayou and highlights a twist on coastal Cajun cuisine using locally sourced, Louisiana-centric ingredients. The king cake soufflé is available for a limited time.

Compère Lapin is located in the Old No. 77 Hotel and Chandlery, 535 Tchoupitoulas, 504-599-2119, comperelapin.com.

DTB is located at 8201 Oak St., 504-518-6889, dtbnola.com.

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