Celebrating Epiphany

Sister Rejane  
This Random Nun Clip is brought to you by A Nun's Life Ministry.

Sister Julie  
Today, our guest is the Catholic Foodie, Jeff Young. Jeff's ministry is a celebration of good food that sustains body and soul. On his website, catholicfoodie.com, you'll find some of his recipes, his restaurant reviews, a recipe exchange, and lots of other resources, including podcasts.

Jeff Young  
You know, liturgically, we celebrated the Epiphany last Sunday, at least here in this state. And that's a big deal for us down here in New Orleans. Because the Epiphany, the Feast of the Three Kings -- Kings Day, it's also referred to -- marks the beginning of Mardi Gras season for us. And one of the biggest signs, I think, or images associated with Mardi Gras around here are king cakes. And those king cakes are really all about Epiphany. Once again, it's a beautiful thing, how our faith shapes culture, even when most folks who are going to the store to buy a king cake have no idea what they're doing, you know what I mean? Buying a cake, it's no big deal.

Sister Maxine  
Now, maybe you can describe a little bit what a king cake is.

Jeff Young  
Well, a king cake is a circular cake, almost like an inner tube. It's got a hole in the middle, you know, like a big donut. The consistency of a king cake is not like you would have a wedding, for instance, it's not like that at all. It's more bready. More bready. And oftentimes, if you go to the store, for instance, to buy king cakes -- and they have companies down here that are in business only during Mardi Gras season, believe it or not. And that's all they do, is produce king cakes, they ship them all over the world. But you get them filled with something. So my personal favorite is cream cheese, I love the cream cheese filling, wonderful stuff. Some people like the strawberry preserves. It's almost like a filled doughnut, you know,

Sister Maxine  
Yeah, like around here, especially in the Detroit area, where we're also very familiar with, they have what are called paczkis, which is almost like a jelly doughnut kind of thing. Is that sort of what a king cake is, or not quite?

Jeff Young  
Well, it's sort of like that. It's like that, in the sense that there's a feeling on the inside, but it's like an inner tube, or kind of like a bundt cake with a hole in the middle, except that it's not the same -- the cake itself is more bready. But it's sweet -- it's cake. And the thing with the king cake is when you get one down here, they have a plastic baby inside. One plastic baby that's stuck in there somewhere. And it's part of the tradition that when you cut the king cake, whoever gets the baby is supposed to buy the next king cake or host the next king cake party.

Sister Julie  
That's sort of like the bay leaf in our tomato sauce in my Italian family. We usually have to do the dishes when you get it. Nobody wants the bay leaf.

Jeff Young  
Something tells me that I would probably be doing a lot of dishes over there.

Sister Julie  
You're just drawn to the bay leaf, or...?

Jeff Young  
Well, I just, you know, I never really when anything. Unless it's bad. Then I'll win.

Sister Julie  
So now where did the king cake tradition come from?

Jeff Young  
Well, it's Europe. It came from Europe. In France, they call it the galette de rois, I believe that how you pronounce it. And in Spain, galleta de los reyes would be the king cake. They had that also. They would not necessarily back then -- this is an old tradition -- it's not necessarily something where they will use a plastic baby, because for a long time there was no such thing. It would have a bean, or something hard that they could put into the cake that somebody would get that would represent the baby. And once again, this is something that started out as a community thing. The king cake was not something you bought and brought to your house and just ate it like ordering pizza for dinner or something. It was a community thing. It was it was families. Folks got together had a king cake party where there was a king cake and whoever got the baby had to host the next king cake party. A lot of businesses today, in the New Orleans or South Louisiana area, somebody will buy a king cake and half the office goes, "Aw, man! You gotta start this here?" And the other half is like, "All right! This is great!" And the same thing, you know: if you get the baby, you gotta bring the next king cake, maybe the next week.

Sister Julie  
So now have you made many of these king cakes in your life?

Jeff Young  
I have. There was a recipe from Emeril Lagasse that someone passed on to me two years ago. And I started to make that -- that was the first time I made a king cake. I take that back. That was the second time. The first time I used a different recipe. It was terrible. When I used Emeril's recipe -- like any recipe: you follow it, but kind of make a little change here or there. tailor it to your taste. It was so good. And I don't say that boastfully. I sat there dumbfounded. And I kept saying to myself over and over again, "I did this? I did this?" But folks really, really loved it. We had people over of course, and word spread. And I've had people who have requested my king cake ever since. And that was actually I think the same year I started the Catholic Foodie.

Sister Maxine  
You know, as you describe that, Jeff, it just occurs to me how cooking is such a wonderful act of creation. And you know, again, a very biblical kind of thing, a very scriptural thing, that notion that we have that creative energy as well.

Jeff Young  
Oh, yeah. It's an art form. It is. It's an art form. I love to write. And I've been writing since I was a very young teenager. And I love it. But when I think of creativity, the first thing that pops in my head is a kitchen.

Sister Julie  
Now, in our chat room, Mark asks, "Is there any yeast in a king cake?"

Jeff Young  
Any yeast? Yes. Matter of fact, the king cake, the one that I make, is double rise. I let it rise twice. So when this thing comes out, it's a monster. [laughter] This thing is so big. It's almost unmanageable.

Sister Maxine  
How does someone to approach it to eat it then?

Jeff Young  
You have to cut small. [laughter] Matter of fact, my oldest daughter last year for her birthday, which is in January -- so it's Mardi Gras season -- she asked for a king cake for her birthday cake. And we had all these kids over. King Cakes, if you're gonna make it at home, it takes a long time. It's a lot of work. And that's why they're so expensive, I think, when you buy them in the stores. But I went through all that effort, only to realize at the very end, there's this logistical problem. How are these kids gonna eat this? So they didn't get a full piece, they got like a piece that was cut and then cut again because it was so big.

Sister Maxine  
Well, people are commenting in the chat room. Somebody's asking, "Now what size is that kind of cake? Like if you were to just say a diameter."

Jeff Young  
Well, I'll tell you how big diameter-wise -- probably 16 or so inches.

Sister Julie  
Wait, is that the cake or the baby?

Jeff Young  
Oh, the cake.

Sister Julie  
Okay. That would be a gigantic baby!

Jeff Young  
That would be a huge baby. I use a pizza stone to set the thing on when it's in the oven. And the stone is like a large pizza size, about 16 inches in diameter. That's how big the cake is. The baby is just a little bitty plastic baby about the size of maybe the top part of your pinky.

Sister Julie  
So you gotta be a little vigilant when you're eating the king cake.

Jeff Young  
You do. And it can lead to a lot of funny situations.

Sister Rejane  
To hear full episodes of A Nun's Life podcasts, visit the podcast page at anunslife.org/podcasts.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.