Mardi Gras flavor jazzing up Carpinteria bakery

CARPINTERIA, Calif. — Reynaldo’s Bakery in downtown Carpinteria enjoys celebrating the different holidays. After 42 years, they finally decided to incorporate the green, purple and yellow of Mardi Gras into their pastries.

Co-owner and baker, Diane Cardenas, said one of her customers requested a traditional Mardi Gras king cake. So she and her husband decided to make more than just the one order to sell to other customers. 

“It’s just cool because we like all of the colors,” said Cardenas. 

She is only aware of another bakery in Oxnard that gets into the Mardi Gras spirit, and that is similar for customers around her bakery who didn't know it was Mardi Gras.

Brian Pennington rode his bicycle with three friends up from Ventura County. None of them were aware it was Fat Tuesday. But the colorful specialty pastries caught their eyes and they were trying to figure out how to carry them back to their homes in their bicycle outfits.

“They looked delicious. They looked really good,” said Pennington.

Cardenas hopes people notice her king cakes this year so she can have a lot more fun with them next year. 

“I can’t wait until next year to do it,” said Cardenas. “Because then I’ll have the beads, you know the beads that you put. So we can actually really decorate them and make them a lot like that.”