STARKVILLE — While Lent may have already started, some sweet treats are harder to give up than others.

For the past month, local bakers have been creating King Cakes, a dessert traditionally used to celebrate Epiphany and Mardi Gras.

Even though Proof Bakery’s storefront has been closed since the end of last year, owner T.J. Manna said that since she opened orders for King Cakes to the public through social media on Jan. 6, demand has stayed steady– and high.

“Everybody’s always looking for the best King Cake in their area,” Manna said. “…I think that the demand is always there. In this area, people love King Cakes. It’s a tradition and it means something to them.”

Manna started learning to bake King Cakes about five years ago, she said, even before she opened Proof, since so many people love them.

But while the desserts are beloved, she said they are not exactly what they appear to be.

“King Cakes are not cakes,” Manna said. “I don’t know why they chose to call them a cake, because it’s so not. It’s never a cake. … It is in fact a cinnamon roll, just shaped differently.”

Manna said King Cakes are traditionally circular and are made out of a yeasted dough with cinnamon and sugar or cream cheese filling rolled inside. The desserts are then topped with either royal or cream cheese icing, along with purple, green and gold sugar. According to Mardi Gras New Orleans, each color represents justice, faith and power, respectively.

King Cakes also traditionally include a small baby– most now made of plastic– hidden inside. According to Southern Living, the baby represents Jesus, though the tradition may have come from placing a bean or a ring inside of a cake during the king’s ball in colonial Louisiana.

Whoever cuts into the cake and gets the baby is said to be lucky for the year, though they may also receive the responsibility of bringing the King Cake for the next year’s celebrations.

While Manna made plenty of traditional King Cakes this year, she said she also decided to branch out this year to make her bakery’s offerings more unique.

“They’re not very fancy,” Manna said. “They’re like a big circular or oval ring with icing on it and then the three colors of sugar. So of course, me being me… I have to offer more fillings than just the cinnamon sugar or cream cheese.”

Besides the traditional flavors, Manna also created King Cakes with fillings like blueberry, raspberry, chocolate and more. At her bakery, Manna typically makes about 10 cakes at a time. The process takes her about three hours, she said, with about one hour of hands-on working time.

The process typically starts at her mixer, where she combines all of the ingredients for the dough in a large batch. The dough is then kneaded and proofed, like bread dough or cinnamon roll dough.

After proving, Manna said she divides the dough into equal portions. Each portion she rolls flat, before adding the chosen filling to the center.

This dough is then rolled up into a long log, like the baker is making cinnamon rolls without cutting them up, Manna said.

This year, Manna started taking her King Cake dough and placing it into a bundt pan for baking, she said, which gives the desserts an even cleaner circular shape. Different shaped pans, she said, can also be used to add a unique twist to the King Cakes.

With Fat Tuesday and Valentine’s Day falling so close together, she even made a few heart-shaped King Cakes for those that wanted to celebrate both holidays at once, Manna said.

Once the cakes are baked, the last step is to decorate with icing, sugar, additional decorations for added flair and of course, the baby.

Manna said that, though a plastic baby is traditionally placed inside of King Cakes, she typically sets the baby on top of the cake, to avoid any chance of a choking hazard. The customer, she said, can put the baby inside of the cake before it is sliced, if they wish.

While Manna has been making her King Cakes more unique by offering a wide variety of the desserts, other bakeries in the area have approached the Mardi Gras season a bit differently.

Kirk Hutchinson is the owner of Power of the Almond Bakery, a Starkville-based bakery specializing in gluten-free products. The bakery started making King Cakes for the first time this year, he said, due to high demand.

“This is the first year that we did it, and the only reason that we did it was because everybody was asking about King Cakes,” Hutchinson said. “And in the past I had said no, we don’t do those. But as I’ve grown with this business and seen what demand is, we’ve had to adjust to what the public is asking for.”

Hutchinson said the bakery uses almond flour or coconut flour instead of wheat flour to create its King Cakes. Otherwise, the process of creating a King Cake remains largely the same.

Hutchinson said his bakery has stuck to just the one traditional King Cake flavor, as this is their first year making King Cakes. The bakery also stuck to the traditional method of baking the baby into the King Cake, rather than putting it on top.

Hutchinson said that demand was highest during January, and the need for them has slowed over the past few days. But one thing is certain.

“Everybody here loves King Cakes,” Hutchinson said.

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