King of Cakes

by Erin Z. Bass Louisiana's capital city of Baton Rouge held its first-annual King Cake Tasteoff last night at Hollywood Casino. It all started on Twelfth Night, when Visit Baton Rouge asked its Facebook fans to share their favorite place for King Cake in the city. The heated conversation then moved to Twitter, where follower @lynseydesign put together a map of King Cake locations. From there, a competition began to take shape, culminating in last night's event with 17 local businesses participating, and local blog Bite and Booze helping present as part of its "Bite Club." With claims to fame on Mardi Gras often going to New Orleans, President and CEO of Visit Baton Rouge Paul Arrigo explained Baton Rouge's role this way: "Mardi Gras does not belong to one city in the state," he said. "As a state capital, we get to share Mardi Gras too!" Categories were split into traditional King Cake (must have cake, icing and possibly a filling) and non-traditional King Cake-flavored items, which ranged from coffee to cake balls and even soap. As a judge, my job was to taste them all and rate each one on taste, texture and presentation. Going in, I knew I preferred