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

Naan News

Lively Indian fusion restaurant-club debuts in Irving with sharp team

InSo Las Colinas

Chicken skewer at InSo Las Colinas

An Asian fusion restaurant that's way more than a restaurant has opened in Irving: Called InSo — short for Indus Social — it's a Southeast Asian fusion restaurant that transitions from upscale dining into a late-night lounge experience, now open at 3165 Regent Blvd., in what was most recently a Sickies Garage, and before that, Walk-On's, where it's serving Indian fusion food, cocktails, and entertainment.

The full name — InSo at Las Colinas, Club, Kitchen, Bar — tells the whole story. The concept is designed to fill a gap in the area: Serving lunch and dinner then pivoting to high-energy nightlife, with live music, themed nights, and rotating entertainment.

Food
According to a representative, InSo draws its name from the Indus region, located in the northwest part of India, stretching from Persia through South Asia, and home to the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent.

Their culinary approach draws inspiration from the regions of Indus and Southeast Asia, with influences fromTexas. Plates are designed with contrasts — aromatics against warmth, brightness against structure, rooted yet contemporary — defining InSo as a distinctive Southeast Asian fusion restaurant.

The menu features some amazing dishes you definitely do not see everywhere. Appetizers include:

Hot Gristmill Corn Naan with butter chicken sauce, peanut sauce, jalapeno-honey butter
Chicken Tikka Boulevard Tacos with Texas chow-chow, cilantro yogurt, pomegranate, cotija cheese, warm corn tortillas
Broiled Spinach, Burrata Cheese and Artichokes with pepita breadcrumbs & naan chips
BBQ shrimp potstickers, with buttered toast points

Entrees include:

Grilled Chicago Stockyards Filet Of Beef, with royal spinach, marble potato kebabs, & kashmir chile onion ring
Cashew And Sesame Crusted Salmon, with yuzu butter sauce, mustard green spoonbread, & charred broccolini
Swiss Chard, Potato, & Pea Tendril Crepes, with tatsoi and mizuna, jicama, corn, queso fresco, & ancho ranchero sauce
Wok Seared Broccolini Sandwich, served in a pasilla chili flatbread with green bean, shiitake mushroom, paneer cheese, & bean sprouts
Lamb Rack Biryani, with basmati rice, red pepper raita, & guajillo chile deviled eggs

There's also a 50-oz Szechuan and Malabar Peppercorn Crusted Tomahawk Ribeye with green peppercorn-Mekong whisky sauce, fried eggs, and Royal spinach.

Desserts include a tempting warm Naan Bread Pudding with Ron Zacapa rum, Tahitian vanilla, golden raisins, and cardamon cream.

Appetizers start at $15. Entrees range from $17 for a falafel sandwich to $40 for the salmon. But they also offer a late-night and happy hour menu with items priced from $15 to $22.

The team
Executive Chef is Michael Morabito, who brings decades of culinary leadership under the mentorship of his father, who was a renowned hotel chef. He worked at Caesars Palace’s Palace Court in Las Vegas, The Mansion on Turtle Creek, and Colonial Country Club where he was executive chef.

Manager Greg Minella brings a globally inspired, detail-driven approach, shaped by years living in Turkey, his Italian heritage, and early exposure to the food world through his family’s roots in New York’s historic Fulton Fish Market. His career spans acclaimed fine-dining destinations and private clubs, including Gershwin’s, Star Canyon, Aurora, Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa, and Carte Blanche, where he helped earn the only Five-Star Forbes rating awarded to a freestanding restaurant in Texas.

Assistant manager is Trisha Prellwitz and sous chef is Robert Pineda.

The club
The restaurant is a sibling to Goli Soda, a similar concept in McKinney which also boasts a lively after-dining scene. At InSo, that means bold cocktails and a heightened social energy with live bands and DJs spinning a wide variety of sounds: indie soul, deep house, Sufi electronica, and Texan funk.

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