bake - January 2019 - 24

cakes

King Cake
hub

King Cake Hub, the brainchild of restaurateur Will Samuels, is

for 70 years and the opportunity to partner with them would

offering an innovative online solution for consumers seeking

be amazing. We realized that it was a good opportunity to

to buy iconic king cakes from the New Orleans area. Starting

reach out to other of our favorite bakeries and over the last

in November, customers can order king cakes from a variety of

several years we've done some extensive research into New

bakeries through the new kingcakehub.com website, in addi-

Orleans area king cakes."

tion to picking up their orders at a single location. The site is
powered by ecommerce platform Shopify.

At King Cake Hub, the new online service has gathered an
aggregation of the best king cakes in the region, offering years

Five New Orleans bakeries are involved: Bywater Bakery,

of Carnival tradition, as well as new developments and a host of

Cannata's Market, Joe Gambino's Bakery, Girls Gone Vegan,

creative ﬂavors.

and Hi Do Bakery. Limited pre-ordering options were available,
but more roll out once king cake season arrives in early 2019.

Joe Gambino's Bakery captures the tradition and spirt of

Carnival season runs Jan. 6 through Mardi Gras on March 5.

Carnival with a special Danish dough recipe popularized by
the Doberge cake ﬁrst made by Beulah Ledner 80 years ago.

Samuels says his former Pizza Nola retail store started carrying

King Cake Hub is working with Gambino's in development of an

Dong Phuong king cakes several years back and, thanks largely

exclusive king cake called Epiphany, made with a sweet home-

to marketing efforts, word began to spread. Dong Phuong

made Danish dough and cream cheese icing.

king cakes became one of the hottest-selling king cakes in
town. Then, in 2018, the James Beard Foundation announced

"We are also excited to partner with Hi Do Bakery, which

that Dong Phuong Vietnamese bakery had won a coveted

celebrates its 30th anniversary next year as a popular West

America's Classics award, recognizing local small businesses.

Bank Vietnamese institution with a very popular king cake,"

Dong Phuong, which opened in 1982, began by catering to

Samuels says. "Bywater Bakery joins us with one of the hottest

the hunger of the Vietnamese community that settled in New

new king cakes on the scene: Berry Chantilly Cake, developed

Orleans after the Vietnam War. Today, the bakery is part of the

by Chaya Conrad, who served previously as bakery manager

city's culinary fabric.

at Rouses Market and Whole Foods. Girls Gone Vegan offers
modate customers of all dietary needs. Finally, we're so excited

to cut our supply and decided to only sell from their bakery,"

to bring Cannata's king cakes to the New Orleans market.

Samuels says. "There was just no way for them to increase

Cannata's has served Southeast Louisiana for 80 years begin-

production to keep up with the demand. Shortly after Mardi

ning in 1939 with a small stand in the French Market. The

Gras, we made the decision to close Pizza Nola and announced

bakery offers over 60 ﬂavors of king cakes."

that even though we were closing we still would have a
substantial presence for Carnival 2019."

Samuels says that King Cake Hub will eventually open a brickand-mortar shop dedicated to selling king cakes. "We will prob-

Within hours after sending out this notice, Samuels said he

ably have in the shop as many as 20 different ﬂavors available,"

received an email from Joe Gambino's Bakery wanting to

Samuels said. "We have several partners with years and years

supply them with king cakes. "Boom. We knew what the plan

of Carnival tradition and some new kids on the block that are

would be," he says. "Gambino's has been the king of king cakes

coming with some new products."

24 < JAN 2019 | bakemag.com

SOSLAND PUBLISHING

a vegan and gluten-free King Cake that allows us to accom"Dong Phuong couldn't keep up with the demand and had

http://www.kingcakehub.com http://www.bakemag.com

bake - January 2019

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