King Cake

Twelfth Night sounds the alarm that Carnival is just around the corner, but it’s also the starter pistol for King Cake season. Throughout New Orleans, people have been eating King Cake daily for a week. Officemates take turns bringing in cakes from different bakeries. If they follow the tradition, whoever finds “the baby” buys the next cake. The plastic baby used to be a red bean when the tradition first came to New Orleans in 1870. The wreath of cinnamon-layered bread can be stuffed with cream cheese, strawberry jam, etc. and the whole works is topped with a white icing and sugar in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power.

Festigals and Gay Pride Parades

Saturday was a day of drag with the Festigals and Gay Pride parades . Ladies first. Last year, Festigals’ Stiletto Stroll was my first ever parade as a Pussyfooter. It’s a sassy woman-centric second line through the French Quarter during the Festigals’ weekend getaway of yoga, empowerment and success panels, shopping, cooking demonstrations and networking events. This year, they added a new fundraiser, the Stiletto Sprint, benefitting the Breast Center at Ochsner Baptist. It’s a 2 block race on Royal Street in minimum 3″ heels – costumes encouraged. The supremely leggy Tammy McCormick Broussard won the race, passing superwoman and other superheroes in her sky-high red heels.