- “The New Orleans Baby Cakes Are Born!,” MiLB.com, November 15, 2016, https://www.milb.com/new-orleans/news/the-new-orleans-baby-cakes-are-born/c-208916226.
- Mac Rebennack, Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of the Night Tripper (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), 159.
- The French possessed Louisiana from 1718 until 1762 and briefly in 1803. Spain ruled from 1762 until 1803. For background on Epiphany celebrations and the king cake, see George Reinecke, “New Orleans Twelfth Night Cake,” Louisiana Folklore Miscellany (April 1965), 45–52; Marcia Gaudet, “The New Orleans King Cake in Southwest Louisiana,” Mardi Gras, Gumbo, and Zydeco: Readings in Louisiana Culture (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003), Marcia Gaudet and James McDonald, eds., 48–57. For background on colonial New Orleans, see Shannon Lee Dawdy, Building the Devil’s Empire: French Colonial New Orleans (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008); Nathalie Dessens, From Saint-Domingue to New Orleans: Migration and Influences (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010); census figures from www.census.gov.
- Sir Charles Lyell, “A Geologist at the Mardi Gras,” The World from Jackson Square: A New Orleans Reader (New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1948), Etolia Basso, ed., 139–140; Oliver Evans, New Orleans (New York: MacMillan, 1959), 146; James Gill, Lords of Misrule: Mardi Gras and the Politics of Race in New Orleans (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997), 18–74, 91–98; Reid Mitchell, All on a Mardi Gras Day: Episodes in the History of New Orleans Carnival (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 18–27.
- For background on Civil War and Reconstruction era New Orleans, see James Hogue, Uncivil War: Five New Orleans Street Battles and the Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011); James Hollandsworth, An Absolute Massacre: The New Orleans Race Riot of July 30, 1866 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004); Justin Nystrom, New Orleans After the Civil War: Race, Politics, and a New Birth of Freedom (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010).
- Mildred Cram, Old Seaport Towns of the South (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1917), 284–285; Eleanor Early, New Orleans Holiday (New York: Rinehart, 1947), 277.
- Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Travels on the Lower Mississippi, 1879–1880 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1990), Frederic Trautmann, trans., 169; Frances Tinker and Edward Larocque Tinker, Mardi Gras Masks: The Nineties (New York: D. Appleton, 1931), 46. For insight on the racial politics of late nineteenth-century Mardi Gras and the celebration’s national influence, see Gill, Lords, 93–107; Mitchell, Mardi Gras Day, 65–81; Ralph Wickiser, Caroline Durieux, and John McCrady, Mardi Gras Day (New York: Henry Holt, 1948), 81–82; Elaine Parsons, “Midnight Rangers: Costume and Performance in the Reconstruction-Era Ku Klux Klan,” Journal of American History (December 2005), 819–827, 833–836; Anthony J. Stanonis, “Through a Purple (Green and Gold) Haze: New Orleans Mardi Gras in the American Imagination,” Southern Cultures (Summer 2008), 109–131.
- “Twelfth Night,” Daily Picayune (January 4, 1870); “Twelfth Night Revels,” Daily Picayune (January 7, 1870); “City Intelligence,” New Orleans Bee (January 7, 1870); Early, Holiday, 261–264; “Local Intelligence,” New Orleans Republican (January 5, 1871).
- “The Royal Cake at Windsor Castle,” Jeffersonian-Republican (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; March 16, 1848); “Old Christmas,” Memphis Daily Appeal (January 7, 1882); “Social World,” Chicago Daily Tribune (January 17, 1875); “Twelfth Night Celebration,” Daily Globe (St. Paul, Minnesota; January 7, 1880); “Twelfth Night Games,” Omaha Daily Bee (January 6, 1895); Marcia Gaudet, “Ribbon Pulls in Wedding Cakes: Tracing a New Orleans Tradition,” Folklore (April 2006): 91–92, Gaudet, “The New Orleans King Cake in Southwest Louisiana,” 49–52; Reinecke, “New Orleans Twelfth Night Cake,” 48–52; Thomas Hale, “The Kings’ Cake Custom in Mobile, Alabama,” Louisiana Folklore Miscellany (August 1968), 104.
- Leonard Huber, “Reflections on the Colorful Customs of Latter-Day New Orleans Creoles,” Louisiana History (Summer 1980): 229; “Society,” Daily Picayune (January 23, 1887); “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (January 26, 1896). The earliest reference to “king cake” in the city’s other major newspaper, the Item, appears in 1907: “St. Bernard News,” New Orleans Item (January 8, 1907); For examples of “king party,” see “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (January 24, 1897); “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (February 6, 1898); “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (February 2, 1902). For examples of “king cake party,” see “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (January 9, 1898); “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (January 19, 1902); “Personal,” Daily Picayune (December 30, 1900).
- John Martin Hammond, Winter Journeys in the South (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott, 1916), 118; “The Story of Twelfth Night Cake,” Times-Picayune (September 12, 1934); “Round Table Talk about Food,” Times-Picayune (January 9, 1937); Anthony J. Stanonis, Creating the Big Easy: New Orleans and the Emergence of Modern Tourism, 1918–1945 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006), 187–188; Kevin Fox Gotham, Authentic New Orleans: Tourism, Culture, and Race in the Big Easy (New York: New York University Press, 2007), 90–92.
- Frey’s ad, Times-Picayune (January 6, 1916); Odenwald and Gros ad, Times-Picayune (January 7, 1917); Original Young’s Confectionary, Times-Picayune (January 3, 1923); Original Young’s Confectionary, Times-Picayune (January 24, 1923); Holmes ad, Times-Picayune (January 13, 1931); Holmes ad, Times-Picayune (January 6, 1939); Renee Peck, “King Cakes Reign over Carnival,” Times-Picayune (February 12, 1981).
- Oliver Evans, New Orleans (New York: MacMillan, 1959), 145; Eleanor Early, New Orleans Holiday (New York: Rinehart, 1947), 262; Mark Souther, New Orleans on Parade: Tourism and the Transformation of the Crescent City (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006), 150–162; Gotham, Authentic, 171–195.
- Binder’s Bakery ad, Times-Picayune (January 9, 1948); Binder’s Bakery ad, Times-Picayune (January 6, 1954); “Aunt Jane’s Letter Club,” Times-Picayune (January 20, 1957).
- Gaudet, “The New Orleans King Cake in Southwest Louisiana,” 49–51, quote from 51; “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (January 19, 1908); “Personal and General Notes,” Daily Picayune (January 10, 1909); “Picou’s Makes King Cakes,” New Orleans Item (January 16, 1947); Louisiana Pond Auxiliary of Blue Goose International, Sauce for the Goose: A New Orleans Cookbook (1948), John and Bonnie Boyd Hospitality and Culinary Library, National Food and Beverage Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana (hereafter cited as NFBF-NOLA); Women’s Republican Club of Louisiana, New Orleans Carnival Cookbook (Women’s Republican Publications, 1951), 31, NFBF-NOLA. For information on the Frozen Charlotte, see “Young Charlotte,” Maine Folklife Center, University of Maine, https://umaine.edu/folklife/what-we-do/programs-and-events/maine-song-and-story-sampler-map/places/wells-young-charlotte, accessed November 28, 2017; “Frozen Charlotte,” Museums Victoria, https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1617640, accessed November 28, 2017.
- McKenzie’s ad, Times-Picayune (January 4, 1952); “King Cake, A Tradition,” Times-Picayune (February 19, 1981); “King Cakes Popular in City, Says Entringer,” Times-Picayune (February 2, 1983); Christine Bordelon, “King Cakes,” Times-Picayune (February 19, 1984).
- “Nonsense Is Sense at Carnival Time,” Times-Picayune (February 18, 1968); “Welcome Sugar Bowl Visitors,” Times-Picayune (December 31, 1971).
- Renee Peck, “King Cakes Reign over Carnival,” Times-Picayune (February, 12 1981); Judice’s Bakery ad, Times-Picayune (February 4, 1966). On the increased consumption of sugar, see Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (New York: Penguin, 1985), 193–203; Carolyn de la Peña, Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010), 177–199; “King Cake Parties, Carnival Lunch Boxes,” Times-Picayune (January 9, 1967); Schwegmann’s ad, Times-Picayune (January 3, 1968); Janet Wallfisch, “The King Cake,” Times-Picayune (January 6, 1980); Woolworth ad, Times-Picayune (January 6, 1978); Lisa Martin, “King Cakes Never Stop at Bakery,” Times-Picayune (April 28, 1985); Sam Scelfo interviewed by Rachel Wallace (October 23, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA.
- “Basic Dough Used for Hot Rolls or for Making Festive King Cake,” Times-Picayune (January 6, 1972). For other recipes, see “King Cake,” Times-Picayune (April 13, 1975); “King Cake,” Times-Picayune (April 6, 1980); “Danneel King Cake,” Times-Picayune (April 18, 1976); “Praline King Cake,” Times-Picayune (March 26, 1978); “Carnival King Cake,” Times-Picayune (March 26, 1978).
- Renee Peck, “King Cakes Reign over Carnival,” Times-Picayune (February 12, 1981); Martin Covert, “Specialty Items, Chinese Visitors, Books,” Times-Picayune (November 21, 1983); “Orleans Menus,” Times-Picayune (February 10, 1985); Oakwood Shopping Center ad, Times-Picayune (February 3, 1980); Pat Antenucci, “Kid Stuff,” Times-Picayune (February 14, 1982); Margaret Fuller, “New Orleans, Queen of King Cake Business,” Times-Picayune (February 3, 1978); Martin Covert, “King Cakes,” Times-Picayune (January 11, 1986); “The Cake That Would Be King,” Times-Picayune (January 27, 1987); Mary Fonseca, “Hail! Hail! King of Cake,” Americana (February 1990), 54–57; Janet Ryland, “From Custom to Coffee Cake: The Commodification of the Louisiana King Cake,” Folklife in Louisiana website, accessed July 11, 2018, http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/main_misc_king_cake.html.
- Laura Claverie, “Even ‘Mork’ Has a Mask from Charge d’Affairs,” Times-Picayune (April 13, 1980); M. J. Jewelry ad, Times-Picayune (January 24, 1988); Molly McNamara Jewelry Design, http://www.mollymcnamara.com/kingcakebabies.html, accessed November 28, 2017; King Cake Lucky Player Vodka, http://luckyplayervodka.co.uk/product/king-cake, accessed November 28, 2017; French Market Coffee King Cake, https://www.reilyproducts.com/French-Market-King-Cake-12-Oz-Bag, accessed June 25, 2018; Community Coffee Mardi Gras King Cake, https://www.communitycoffee.com/products/coffee/12-oz-ground-mardi-gras-king-cake, accessed June 25, 2018.
- Ben Young, “Mardi Gras Celebration on No. Claiborne Ave.,” Louisiana Weekly (February 16, 1980).
- Ishmael Reed, Shrovetide in Old New Orleans (Garden City: Doubleday, 1978), 32.
- “Plantation Revelers,” Louisiana Weekly (January 19, 1980); Randall Kenan, Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 505; Lynne Jensen, “Stork Doesn’t Bring These Babies,” Times-Picayune (January 27, 1985); Fox, Authentic, 182–187; Gill, Lords of Misrule, 194–195; 221–278; Souther, Parade, 135–142, 171–187; Martin Covert, “King Cakes,” Times-Picayune (January 28, 1985); Ryland, “From Custom to Coffee Cake”; “Zulu King Cake,” Ambrosia Bakery website, accessed July 11, 2018, https://www.ambrosiabakery.com/products/515c7341-e9e9-4a21-94b0-4fee8afc9e21.
- Sean O’Mahoney interviewed by Rachel Wallace (December 15, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA; Ann Benoit, “Old Metairie Celebrates New Orleans’ Signature Sandwich with New Festival,” Times-Picayune (September 22, 2017); Linh Tran Garza interviewed by Rachel Wallace (December 11, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA; Jean Luc Albin interviewed by Rachel Wallace (December 7, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA; James Chaney, “A Glance at New Orleans’ Contemporary Hispanic and Latino Communities,” American Association of Geographers, accessed October 2, 2017, http://news.aag.org/2017/10/a-glance-at-new-orleans-contemporary-hispanic-and-latino-communities/.
- Eliza Barclay, “Is That a Plastic Baby Jesus in My Cake?,” National Public Radio website (February 17, 2012), accessed September 9, 2017. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/02/17/147039138/is-that-a-plastic-baby-jesus-in-my-cake; Chaya Conrad interviewed by Rachel Wallace (October 11, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA.
- Christine Bordelon, “Daily Jazz Brunch,” Times-Picayune (February 1, 1987); Chaya Conrad interviewed by Rachel Wallace (October 11, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA; Arthur Hardy interviewed by Rachel Wallace (October 26, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA; Dwynesha Lavigne interviewed by Rachel Wallace (October 10, 2017), King Cake Oral History Project, NFBF-NOLA.
- David Beriss, “New Orleans: A City in the Grip of King Cake Madness,” National Public Radio (February 2, 2016; accessed September 1, 2017), http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/02/464764078/new-orleans-a-city-in-the-grip-of-king-cake-madness; King Cake Festival website, accessed June 25, 2018, http://kingcakefestival.org/; “Largest King Cake,” Guinness World Records website, accessed June 25, 2018, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-king-cake-rosca-de-reyes.
