Feb 9, 2016 - Food and Drink

Behind the scenes at Suarez Bakery’s massive king cake production for Mardi Gras

Katie Levans

Carlos Suarez didn’t have any formal culinary training when he opened his bakery in 1992. He’d worked in food service his whole life, starting out as a dishwasher and moving his way up the ranks to the line. When you ask him how the bakery came to be, the answer is that it sort of just happened. But the continued success of the business 24 years later suggests it was built more on raw talent than by chance.

Suarez’s sons Carlos (referred to as Junior in the bakery to avoid confusion) and Jesse have both joined the family business, Junior on the marketing and accounting side and Jesse in the kitchen. Jesse says January, traditionally a slow month for the bakery, broke sales records this year, topping out even their best December during the peak holiday season. Business, it goes without saying, is booming.

It’s not uncommon to find a line out the door at Suarez Bakery in Park Road Shopping Center. On this particular Saturday, the day before the Super Bowl and the weekend before Mardi Gras, Panthers cookies and king cakes are in high demand and low supply.

Suarez started producing king cakes in 1995 at a customer’s request and never expected it to become a popular item. “We probably only sold six cakes that first year,” he said. But word of mouth and scarcity have made the seasonal item a serious draw. This year they’ll produce about 600 cakes in a span of six weeks.

Here’s a look behind the scenes at the production of 50 of those cakes.

The process starts by portioning out and weighing the dough. They use an old school balance because Carlos doesn’t like digital scales.

They’ll be making about 50 1-pound cakes in this batch. From the Saturday before Mardi Gras through today, they will have made more than 400 king cakes.

The portioned dough balls are covered with plastic to prevent drying out during proofing.

Then they’re passed through this awesome conveyor belt to be flattened into disks.

The dough is brushed with an egg wash…

… and then filled. Today they’re making cinnamon sugar cakes but they also sell cakes filled with cream cheese or pecan praline. I’ll take one of each.

After topping off the sugar with a heavy sprinkle of cinnamon, the dough is rolled up and then shaped into a ring. Carlos punches the dough to secure the ends together which looks completely necessary and also satisfying.

Rings get another brush of egg white before baking.

And then it’s time to decorate.

Baked king cakes are stuffed with a plastic baby Jesus, a tradition that symbolizes luck and prosperity for the lucky person who receives the piece with the baby inside… so long as that lucky person doesn’t eat the baby Jesus.

The last step is to top the cake with glaze and colored sugar. Traditional colors are gold (representing power), green (representing faith) and purple (representing justice).

Here’s the finished product.

Suarez Bakery’s king cakes are available in 1- and 2-pound sizes with cinnamon sugar, cream cheese or pecan praline filling. Prices range from $14.50 to $32.50 and orders can be placed online here. Cakes are available this year until February 13 so you haven’t missed your chance yet. Preorder for cakes available in time for Fat Tuesday (today) has closed but a very limited supply will be available in store for walk-ins.

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