Pastry News

These Mardi Gras pastries in Dallas beat regular King Cake by a mile

King Cake beignets from Dusty Biscuits Beignets

Dusty Biscuits

Mardi Gras in 2023 is February 21, and that means king cake, the flashy seasonal treat that has been a New Orleans tradition since 1870.

With its proximity to Louisiana, Dallas has always had a bounty of king cake options from which to choose, everywhere from supermarkets to local bakeries. Whether any of those king cake options are any good is another topic.

The baby is a cute schtick. King Cakes come with a little toy plastic baby that gets baked into the dough; whoever gets it and doesn't choke on it supposedly has good luck. There's that.

But the cake itself .... NewOrleans.com says that a prototypical king cake is somewhere between cinnamon roll and coffeecake, and is "frequently packed with fruit fillings and decadent cream cheeses."

Hm. That might be true in New Orleans — but Dallas king cakes always seem dry and bready, with the only distraction being the signature garishly colored sugar, so crunchy, it hurts your teeth.

It's almost as awful as kolaches.

Fortunately, Dallas has some creative king cake spinoffs that celebrate the spirit of king cake without forcing you to actually eat king cake.

Here are five:

la madeleine king cake danish King Cake Danish from La MadeleineLa Madeleine

Mardi Gras Danish at La Madeleine. The French bakery chain first introduced this seasonal pastry in 2019. It's described as a flaky Danish with a strawberry & cream cheese filling, topped with a fondant glaze and dusted with purple, yellow, & green sugar. It's basically croissant dough, fashioned into a Danish-like round shape, similar to their other Danish offerings such as lemon-blueberry Danish and ham & Swiss cheese Danish. $3.99, and it'll be available through March 7.

Overeasy king cake cupcakes King Cake cupcakes from Overeasy, festively iced.Overeasy

King Cake Cupcakes at Overeasy. The breakfast-and-lunch spot at the Statler Dallas hotel is doing special, house-made King Cake Cupcakes, featuring a vanilla cupcake topped with a colorful vanilla creme swirl rendered in the signature colors, and topped with a plastic baby. But you'll have to be quick because these are available for one day and one day only: on Mardi Gras day itself, February 21. You can enjoy them at the restaurant or get them to-go. The cupcakes are $2.99 each, $13.99 for a half-dozen, or $22.99 for a dozen. Best to order ahead of time by calling 469-320-8998.

Empire king cake Empire Baking Co King Cake is filled with cinnamon and pecans.Empire Baking Co.

Brioche King Cakes at Empire Baking Co. Dallas' premiere bakery is doing King Cakes for the first time. It being Empire, it's not like the others. They use a brioche dough into which they roll layers of cinnamon, chopped pecans, and a brown-butter glaze — almost (OK, exactly) like a giant cinnamon roll. It's then iced and dusted with sugar, but with a ratio of more icing and less sugar than the usual King Cake. They're selling them at both their Inwood Village and SMU locations on Fridays-Saturdays through February 19, then on Monday, February 20 and Tuesday, February 21. $35.

humble pie king cake It's a pie version of King Cake by Humble Pie.Humble Pie

King Cake Pie at Humble: Simply Good Pies. As this East Dallas pie shop notes, "We are a pie shop, so it made no sense to make a king cake." Instead they do this "Bon Temps" King Cake pie version, filling their flaky pie crust with a sweet-and-tart citrus chess pie with cinnamon swirl, topped with traditional icing and sugar. And of course, a baby in the center. The shop has a special connection to this item: It was the last pie they were forced to pitch after their location caught on fire in March 2022. The pies are $45 and are available for order through February 21.

Dusty Biscuits king cake Dusty Biscuits' beignet version of a king cake.Dusty Biscuits

Mardi Gras beignets at Dusty Biscuit Beignets. Fort Worth beignet shop does one of the most clever New Orleans crossover items, combining two NOLA favorites — King Cake + beignets — into one. Fluffy fried beignets get drizzled with a sweet cream cheese glaze, dusted with cinnamon sugar, then colored powdered sugar. They're such a signature that they do them year-round, and are 3 to an order for $6. During Mardi Gras season, they also do a mini-king-cake version, using their same beignet dough, but in a traditional round, with an iridescent purple plastic baby in the center. The mini-cake is $12 and officially serves 2 to 4.

holidays desserts

Drone News

Chipotle restaurant chain is testing drone delivery starting in Dallas

Zipline

Zipline making a Chipotle delivery

National restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill is testing drone delivery, starting here in Dallas. The company is partnering with Zipline, the world's largest autonomous delivery system, on a new service offering called Zipotle, that will drop burritos and a side of guacamole right onto customers' front doors.

According to a release, the service starts on August 21 at 12 pm, with the first location in Rowlett, at 3109 Lakeview Pkwy., when a small number of burrito lovers in the area can access the Zipotle service, with a broader launch in the coming weeks.

The new Zipotle delivery option will use Zipline's fleet of quiet, zero-emissions aircraft, to make fast, convenient deliveries — saving' time and keeping orders "dine-in fresh."

The Zipline procedure is as follows:

Eligible customers in the Rowlett area can download the Zipline app on the Apple store or Android store and place their Chipotle order.
Chipotle employees place the prepared order into a kiosk-like "Zipping Point," which allows Zips to pick up the order for delivery.
After flying to the customer address, the aircraft will hover about 300 feet in the air, while the Zip lowers to the ground.
The Zip automatically avoids obstacles and gently and precisely places the order at the guest's address.

They use cameras, sensors, and Nvidia chips to avoid obstacles while making a delivery. There's a video of it here.

Zipline droneZipline

Zipline is a San Francisco-based startup that's been working with chains like Sweetgreen and Panera Bread, as well as hospitals and medical companies to deliver medicine and other products. According to the release, they began making autonomous deliveries of medical products to rural hospitals in Rwanda and deliver to roughly 5,000 hospitals and health facilities around the world. Their electric drones can carry up to 8 pounds, travel up to 24 miles, and deliver up to seven times faster than cars stuck in traffic.

This is not the first time that Chipotle has made efforts to deliver by drone: In 2016, they experimented with a similar venture, partnered with Google's parent company, Alphabet, which was only able to make deliveries to a centralized site on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Zipline has already been in Dallas-Fort Worth since March in a partnership with Walmart, when it launched its first full-service operation in Mesquite. Customers within a two-mile radius of the Walmart Supercenter on Highway 80 in Mesquite have been able to receive drone deliveries of over 65,000 products. The service has expanded locally to places like Fort Worth and Waxahachie, and in June, Walmart and Zipline expanded to five other metroplex areas including Houston.

"With Zipline, you tap a button, and minutes later food magically appears - hot, fresh, and ultra-fast," says Zipline CEO and co-founder Keller Rinaudo Cliffton. "Starting today, families in the Dallas area can have food delivered by Zipotle and served for lunch or dinner. What once felt like science fiction is soon going to become totally normal."

Zipline designs, manufactures and operates its autonomous aircraft, pioneering the use of physical AI in commercial last mile logistics. Zipline delivery is extraordinarily quiet and barely noticeable, and food arrives restaurant-fresh – even in wind, rain, cold or Texas summer heat – thanks to its speed and built-in insulation.

Initially, Zipotle will carry orders up to 5.5 pounds and will increase to 8 pounds over time.

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