NEW ORLEANS — In this home of Mardi Gras, people have strong feelings about what king cake is and when you should eat it.

The oval-shaped pastry with a plastic baby inside traditionally heralded the arrival of Carnival season on 12th Night — Jan. 6 — the day the Catholic faith says three wise men arrived with gifts for the baby Jesus. And it was eaten only until Mardi Gras, which was celebrated yesterday.

Now, to the dismay of traditionalists, the cakes come in many flavors and shapes, and are available all year round.

For Carnival historian Errol Laborde, that's not as it should be. Like oysters, Creole tomatoes and crawfish, some things are best at the proper time.

"No king cake will touch my lips before 12th Night or after Mardi Gras," he said.

Traditional king cake is made of cinnamon-flavored sweet bread-like pastry with thin icing, topped with purple, green and gold sugar. Each contains a plastic baby, but the tradition originally called for a red bean. The person who gets the baby is supposed to supply the next king cake for family or office gatherings.

"I'm a purist," said cookbook author Kit Wolh. "I believe king cake should be what it's always been, plain and with a baby, but now people have gilded the lily. Now they can be made with stuffing, it can be sweet or savory."

David Haydel Jr., 32, whose family has been baking in New Orleans for three generations, does a candy cane-shaped cake for Christmas and a New Orleans Saints king cake with black and gold icing, among others. Haydel's ships about 50,000 king cakes worldwide during Carnival season.

At Manny Randazzo's King Cakes, a bakery that produces only king cakes, business is booming. Although they sell them on the Internet all year round, the bakery opens two weeks before Christmas with king cakes for that holiday. On Jan. 3 it reopens for Carnival season and keeps cranking them out until Lundy Gras, or Mardi Gras eve.

"We just bake as many as we can and put them out," said store manager Johnita Perkins. "Every year we need more of them."

King Cake

This simple recipe from Kit Wohl's "New Orleans Classic Desserts" uses store-bought roll mix instead of a complicated cake recipe. To make a good thing even better, many bakeries now stuff their king cakes with apple, peach or cherry pie filling, cream cheese or chopped pecans with cinnamon sugar. Any of these options can be added to the plain filling here.

If you have a plastic baby from a previous king cake, it can be inserted into the dough. Otherwise, insert a bean — preferably a red bean — into the cake after baking. Tradition holds the person getting the bean or baby buys or makes the next king cake.

For cake and filling:

1 box (16 ounces) Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix, prepared according to directions on box

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

For icing:

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

1 cup granulated sugar (large crystals)

3 or 4 drops of purple, green or yellow food coloring.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream the butter, sugar and cinnamon together until soft enough to spread easily.

To make the dough, follow directions on the Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix package. Instead of forming rolls, turn half the dough onto a floured surface, and roll into a 2-foot-by-1- foot rectangle. Spread half the butter and filling mixture on top of dough.

Beginning at the wide edge, roll the dough toward you into a long cigar shape approximately 2 inches in diameter. Do the same with the second half of the dough. Place dough roll seam-side down on a well-greased baking sheet. Curve each roll, pinching the ends together to make an oval ring. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes or until doubled in size.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until a straw inserted into the dough comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool.

To prepare the glaze, combine sugar, lemon juice and water, mixing until smooth. Slowly add more water by the teaspoon until it spreads as easily as a thin icing.

Place 1/3 cup sugar in each of three small jars with lids. Add three drops of food coloring to each. Cover with lid and shake until color is evenly distributed throughout the large sugar crystals. Add food coloring, drop by drop until desired shade is achieved.

Coat the cake top with glaze. Sprinkle colored sugars in 2- to 3-inch alternating rows of purple, green and yellow. Cut and serve.

Makes 12 servings.

— From Kit Wohl's "New Orleans Classic Desserts," Pelican Publishing, 2007, $16