The dough is basic coffee-cake dough, sometimes laced with cinnamon, sometimes just plain. The cake is then baked, and decorated when it comes out. Prices range from two to three dollars for a small traditional cake to close to twenty for a large filled one. The ceramic babies have been replaced with plastic ones, but many places now sell both pink and brown babies. For years now, those who are unable to be with us here in New Orleans for Carnival have been able to share the Carnival spirit by ordering a mail-order king cake.
Many bakeries are now in the mail-order business.