Since its 2021 opening, Eloise Market and Cakery has become known for turbocharged sweets that appeal to your inner child. It’s no surprise its banana pudding king cake is one of its top-sellers.
“It came from our banana pudding cookie,” founder and owner MJ Schmidt Burr says. “People really loved it, and we thought it would make a good filling.”
No matter how hard purists might push back, fruit-filled variations like this one are now firmly embedded in the king cake canon. From apple to pineapple and from berries to bananas, fruit fillings are a common accomplice to king cake’s hardy, not-too-sweet brioche dough.
During Carnival season, Burr and her team make brioche dough every morning, allowing it to rise twice before baking. For a banana pudding king cake, Burr flips a baked ring upside down and pierces its surface to pipe in scratch-made banana pudding.
How the cookie crumbles
The making of banana pudding king cakes at Eloise Market and Cakery
“The consistency is a little bit thicker than typical pudding,” she says.
Fancy filled king cakes usually have a visual tell, and Eloise’s banana pudding version is no exception. Its surface is painted with more pudding, and crushed and whole vanilla wafers.
“The cookies give it extra texture,” Burr says.
The shop has sold king cakes since early 2023, and it also offers king cake baking classes throughout the season. But this year, Burr says she’s rolling out a new and improved brioche.
The new pastry debuted at the Fête Rouge chef’s competition last August. Her cream cheese pecan king cake, filled with crushed pecans, cinnamon sugar and cream cheese, and smeared with cream cheese and caramel praline frostings, took second place.
“We’re really excited about this new recipe,” she says. “We’ve received excellent feedback.” eloisemarket.com
Oak Point’s rabid fans now have a St. George location (the former Perkins Road Calandro’s Supermarket) to source its king cakes—already wildly popular in Watson and Central—like this carnival-meets-Carnival flavor.
Find deep-fried, doughnut-style king cakes here in lots of fruit flavors. There’s not only strawberry but chocolate-covered strawberry, too. Find it on Facebook
