The winner of the 2012 King Cake King contest is the pecan praline made by Manny Randazzo.
The official tasters have decided, and they have crowned the 2012 Times-Picayune/NOLA.com King Cake King crown on the pecan praline king cake at Manny Randazzo King Cakes in Metairie Louisiana.
“Delicious. It’s like a good praline crossed with a caramel cake,” wrote one of the judges. Another commented, “I would buy this and eat it in one sitting.”
For six weeks, the judges from The Times-Picayune and the food and arts communities tasted and judged cakes at each of six bakeries, which readers selected as their favorites using online polls.
They visited Nonna Randazzo's Bakery and Caffe, Haydel's Bakery, Gambino's Bakers, Manny Randazzo King Cake, Sucre and Randazzo's Camellia City Bakery.
Three cakes were taste-tested at each bakery (except for Sucre, which makes only one kind of king cake); the six top-scoring cakes were ranked against each other. Less than 1.5 points separated the top three king cakes.
In addition to point totals based on criteria including taste, appearance and texture, judges also were asked to rank the sweetness of the king cakes that were tasted.
Haydel’s Cream Cheese King Cake was ranked the least sweet; the sweetest was the Turtle King Cake at Randazzo’s Camellia City Bakery.
The judges were asked if they were spending their own money, which bakery would they spend it at.
The judges answered unanimously in the affirmative for only two of the king cakes: the one from Sucre, and Manny Randazzo’s Pecan Praline.
The judges answered unanimously in the affirmative for only two of the king cakes: the one from Sucre, and Manny Randazzo’s Pecan Praline.
Here, Manny Randazzo's website: https://www.randazzokingcake.com/
