Want to celebrate Joe Burrow, the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras? This king cake is for you.
King cake is all the rage during Carnival season. But now the traditional treat has been drafted into a different kind of celebration.
With quarterback Joe Burrow and his fellow former LSU players Ja’Marr Chase, Tyler Shelvin and Thaddeus Moss bringing the Cincinnati Bengals into the Super Bowl this Sunday, many in Louisiana have adopted a new team to cheer.
At Little J’s Donuts in Harahan, doughnut maker Joshua Dean found a unique way to capture the pre-game buzz with a blend of colors and a whole lot of sugar. He created a king cake that simultaneously honors the former LSU Tigers’ current exploits and the Louisiana link that led them there.
It follows the form of Little J’s doughnut king cakes — that is, a king cake shape made from airy, moist doughnut dough, fried, then glazed, complete with plastic baby inside.
On top of this specialty Super Bowl edition, there’s orange and black icing for the Bengals. But cut in, and the interior reveals a very LSU-esque swirl of purple and gold dough.
It’s the riff on a multicolored doughnut king cake Dean concocted last year and has been making again through Carnival season. It starts by rolling out different strands of dough in Carnival colors and braiding them together.
It tastes just like a doughnut, a giant one, with the spirit of Carnival coursing through in a tie-dyed style flourish.
“I’m a little bit extra,” said Dean, who is covered from neck to fingertips in tattoos and makes doughnuts to a heavy metal soundtrack ringing through his kitchen.
“When I see people doing all these things with king cakes, I knew I had to something even more different.”
The symbolism of Bengals on the outside and LSU on the inside has struck a chord, and Dean has been working through the night to keep up. He’s already fully booked with orders for Super Bowl Sunday.
“People are loving it, they love their Tigers here,” he said.
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