The Lakewood Ohio King Cake Situation
This is what I know about obtaining and enjoying a king cake in the Lakewood Ohio (Cleveland) area as of January 2023. Corrections and additions are welcome.
The king cake tradition was brought to America by Spanish and French settlers, but I mainly associate it with New Orleans and Mardi Gras. It’s colorful and delicious and being generally available from early January through Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, making it the perfect accomplice for breaking your new year’s resolutions.
These are the bakeries in my area, and some notes about king cake availability.
| Bakery | Has King Cake | Tried It | Notes |
| Wild Flour Bakery | YES | 2022, 2023 | Purchased two in 2022. Cinnamon/walnut. Very good, well packaged and included a king cake info card and a plastic baby. Also enjoyed them in 2023. The filling is heavy on walnuts which is unique but I think I prefer other fillings. |
| Elmwood Bakery | YES | 2022 | Purchased two in 2022. Fine but sort of small and not particularly interesting. Sold in grocery-store style plastic clamshells, which are also not very interesting. |
| KB Confections | ? | – | Call in 2024. |
| Cleveland Vegan | NO | – | Exchanged emails with the restaurant staff in 2022. They were experimenting with vegan king cake at that time but at that time decided not to make them to sell. Asked again in 2023. They were very helpful but they are too busy making delicious paczki at that time of year and have not been able to experiment with king cake. |
| Breadsmith | YES | 2023 | Shop is hard to reach via email. They do sell king cake. Delicious. |
| Propaganda Coffee | NO | – | Propaganda makes all their own pastries, vegan and gluten-free. Called 2023 and they were not planning to make them but will discuss. They mostly make single-serving pastries for the coffee shop. |
| Kathys Kolacke and Pastry Shop | ? | – | Call in 2024. |
| Lala Bake Shop | NO | – | |
| Blackbird Baking Company | ? | – | Call in 2024. |
