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is defrauded of their lawful share of almond paste, or “love” as it is usually called. And while almond-meets-cake flavor fell out of favor elsewhere, this was also around the time with 229,000 Italian immigrants — many Sicilian — were making their way to New Orleans, and Italian culture has long been smitten with using almond flavoring in desserts. Maybe, just maybe, that’s the reason wedding cake flavor has stuck around for a couple of centuries in the Crescent City. Sarah Baird is the author of multiple books including New Orleans Cocktails and Flask , which was released in summer 2019. A 2019 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, her work has been featured in The New York Times , Washington Post , Saveur , Eater , Food &Wine and The Guardian , among others. Previously, she served as restaurant critic for the New Orleans alt-weekly, Gambit Weekly , where she won Critic of the Year in 2015 for her dining reviews.

when done mix it with the carrots; add a pinch of minced orange-flowers praline, three-quarters of a pound of powder-sugar … and four whole eggs.” It was then poured into a mold and baked, giving us something that very much resembles today’s carrot cakes. In modern kitchens, carrot cakes take many forms: sometimes marketed as a “healthy” alternative to regular white cake; sometimes filled with all sorts of culinary trinkets like pecans and dried fruits; most of the time shellacked in a thick layer of cream cheese frosting. However you like it, it’s safe to say we’ve come a long way from carrot pudding.

perfectly sweet, almond-undertoned wedding cake flavor on your big day. The origins of this tradition are a little murky, but probably stem from the confluence of several simultaneous events. Wedding cakes became a commonplace occurrence by the late 1800s, and as evidence by this syndicated column from 1893 — which just so happened to run in the New Orleans Item — almond paste was a big part of the wedding cake experience: In the wedding cake of more ancient type, there was a thicker layer of white sugar which nobody cared about; a medium layer of almond paste, which everybody wished for, and did not always get; and an immense quantity of cake of which many only ate a few crumbs. The latest specimen has a thin layer of sugar, only just enough to look pretty, and underneath are alternate layers of cake and almond

paste, one as thick as the other. The consequence is that no one

WEDDING CAKE FLAVOR ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT DISPLAY CASE VIEW:

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Multi-tiered almond-flavored white cake, traditionally with pineapple filling and buttercream frosting. ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT THE SWEET STORY: It’s a sob story told time and time again by New Orleanians who are getting married elsewhere. They arrive at a bakery, ready to place the traditional order for their upcoming nuptials, and confidently request a wedding cake-flavored cake. Record “Wedding cake” flavor is a distinctly New Orleans specialty: an almond- flavored white cake that’s as much a part of the city’s wedding tradition as cake pulls. Everyone born and raised in the city knows what it tastes like, and for centuries, it was the default option for the bulk of wedding cakes — no need for taste-testing multiple combinations of flavors and frostings. Nope, you’re getting a cake with that scratch! The staff looks at them quizzically: Uh, what is that?

combining 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda with 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar. ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Cream of Tartar is a dry, powdery acid that is a byproduct of wine production. Adding a very small amount of cream of tartar when you’re beating egg whites helps make them stable. A weak acid, like lemon juice or white vinegar, works as a substitute. Add 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice per egg white.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Adding bicarbonate of soda, commonly known as baking soda , to a cake recipe made with an acid like buttermilk, lemon juice or yogurt, releases carbon dioxide bubbles, making it light and fluffy. ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and cream of tartar, which is a dry, powdery acid. (Some manufacturers add cornstarch.) Use baking powder in recipes that do not call for an additional acidic ingredient. You can make baking powder by

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