MANDEVILLE, La – Manny Randazzo King Cakes and Caluda’s King Cake emerged victorious in the 2019 King Cake Snob annual “Seal of Approval” ranking competition, earning first place in the highly coveted best overall “Traditional” and “Filled” categories, respectively. Caluda’s swept the competition in 2018, winning four of the five categories, while Manny Randazzo achieved the same feat in 2017.
This year’s competition saw nearly 3,500 King Cake reviews from Jan. 7 through Feb. 25 on KingCakeSnob.com, featuring 633 different cakes from more than 160 bakeries. Those who voted in the competition were also automatically entered to win drawings for a free king cake.
In the best overall “Traditional” King Cake category, Dong Phuong fell just short of first place behind Manny Randazzo, while Mad Batter Bakery earned third place honors. In the “Filled” King Cake category, Caluda’s topped the competition again with its apple cake. Navarre’s strawberry cream cheese cake secured second place, and Antoine’s Bakery came in third place with its cream cheese cake.
Other categories voted on were “Presentation,” “Flavor” and “Freshness,” with Keller’s Bakery earning the top spot in both the “Flavor” and “Freshness” categories, while Meche’s Donut King bested the competition in the “Presentation” category.
For the second year, King Cake Snob partnered with local clothing company Dirty Coast to design three custom Mardi Gras t-shirts to benefit an area food bank. T-shirts are still available at both Dirty Coast stores and online at DirtyCoast.com. Proceeds from the t-shirt sales will be donated to Northshore Food Bank to feed the hungry in south Louisiana.
King Cake Snob is a community project by Mandeville agency Innovative Advertising. Jay Connaughton, managing partner for Innovative Advertising, said the 2019 competition was another deliciously hard-fought battle.
“Every year, we look forward to giving Louisianans the opportunity to voice their opinions about their favorite king cakes and bakeries,” said Connaughton. “This year’s competition was another fun celebration of one of Louisiana’s favorite Mardi Gras pastimes. Congratulations to the bakeries and voters who contributed to the naming of our 2019 winners!”
As in previous years, the 2019 competition not only named the top King Cakes in both categories, voter questionnaires also revealed Louisianans preferences in king cake consumption habits during carnival season, Mardi Gras parade watching preferences and much more.
To view all of the results of the 2019 competition, visit KingCakeSnob.com.