Trinket
The traditional trinket in the cake is a bean, still seen in some European and Mexican traditions but rare in U.S. king cakes. It is echoed, however, in some krewes' use of a gilded bean trinket.
In the U.S. Gulf Coast since the 1950s, the most common trinket has been a small plastic baby doll. Earlier ceramic baby dolls as trinkets are documented in New Orleans back to the 1930s. A king wearing a crown is the next most common trinket. Other figures have been seen historically, and starting in the 1990s again became more common in the more expensive "gourmet" varieties of king cake. The common plastic baby of today is usually colored pink, brown, white or gold. Due to the choking hazard, some bakeries include the trinket separately from the pastry.
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