Entrepreneurs, fine-dining restaurants and Vietnamese bakeries all have helped take the king cake to a new level.

The following is from New Orleans Magazine editor and Carnival historian Errol Laborde's weekly blog on MyNewOrleans.com. Read more of Laborde's Carnival coverage in New Orleans Magazine or at MyNewOrleans.com and look for more Carnival stories from him here and on WWL-TV Channel 4 and the Eyewitness Morning News on WUPL-TV Channel 54.

There was a time when there was no debate about King Cake. There was, for the most part, only one brand, McKenzie’s, and only one flavor, McKenzie’s- style – which had a slight cinnamon coffee roll taste. The purple green and gold sugar added more to the look than to the flavor.

McKenzie’s was a plain tasting brand, but that seemed to be nature’s way of moderating King Cake eating. A person could have only one slice per season and have experienced the range. The king cake maintained its presence but did not overwhelm.

It is inherent in urban celebrations not to sit still for fear of disinterest. Just as in 1968 a new krewe called Bacchus introduced bigger floats, more throws and celebrity kings, someone around then decided that the King Cake also had be to embellished. The exact moment of the big bang is lost to history but some time in the ‘60s a baker began injecting the cakes with various flavorings. From then on there would be multiple points of debate; Haydel’s versus Randazzo’s versus Gambino’s. Chocolate versus strawberry versus blueberry.

Neither McKenzie’s nor its King Cake could survive in this overheated environment. Like the parade of the Krewe of Mecca, the McKenzie’s King Cake exists only in memory.

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La Madeleine’s galette de rois probably is the purest French-based pastry. It features an elegant almond flavored brioche; but in America, even royalty reflects many cultures such as the native Creole cream cheese-infused King Cake.

You might have noticed that New Orleans history now tends to be referenced within one of two eras; that which began in 1718 with the legal creation of the city and that which began in September 2005 as the recovery from Hurricane Katrina began.

King Cakes were already a big sales item before Katrina. I maintain that the recovery has made them even more popular because:

• There’s new fascination with New Orleans culture and items linked to it.

• There is a new generation of young entrepreneurs who have moved to the city and who will create more offshoots to the King Cake.

• The Vietnamese. Who would have thought? They already create stiff competition for our poor boy with their banh mi but to make a better King Cake is to tread on sacred ground. Schooled in French baking traditions and enriched by their own creativity they have created a King Cake like no other and given it a new following.

• With the growth of the restaurant industry even fine dining eateries are creating their own craft King Cakes. (So, you have an idea for a bacon and banana King Cake? Sorry, that’s taken already.)

• Web-based ordering and quick delivery will give the King Cake a global reach.

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Even in this modern age there are still some ancient questions to be dealt with. One is the matter of who gets the baby. Usually there is a flow of King Cakes through our office kitchen. One year an employee wrote a well-intended but firm message to the staff complaining about people who obliviously poke at the king cake with a knife hoping to avoid the baby. (Such practices, I believe, are banned by the Geneva Convention.) People should do as our employee suggested and take the responsibility for getting the baby. Buying the next king cake is not too much to ask.

I write these words facing my own reckoning. In the office kitchen there was once a King Cake left over from the day before. I nibbled on a piece, dry as it was from a day’s exposure, and noticed on the wrapping next to a clump of sugar was the baby. Technically I did not get the baby. It was sitting there abandoned. In the spirit of the times I bought the next one so as to maintain the continuity. For the sake of the baby, may the King Cake pokers stay away.