BATON ROUGE - Monday is King’s Day, and bakeries are already prepared to welcome the crowds of people excited to get their king cake fix.

Bakers at Joe Gambino’s in Baton Rouge were up bright and early Monday morning to get hundreds of king cakes ready for the start of a long Mardi Gras season. 

"My bakers have been here since three o'clock this morning trying to get a gambit of flavors out for our customers," manager Angela St. Romain said.

In the 1980s, Joe Gambino's Bakery brought their king cakes from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. 

Every Mardi Gras season they make up to 30,000 cakes, but this year with Mardi Gras day being more than eight weeks away, they're looking at upwards of 34,000. This means bakers will prepare between 300 and 600 a day. 

"As the season progresses however it goes up to 800, 900, sometimes a thousand a day," St. Romain said.

She says it's a big revenue season for the locally owned bakery. 

"We have normally on just regular non-holiday times we have about 100-120 people who come into the bakery each day, but during the whole Mardi Gras season that goes up to around 200 people a day so it is definitely a huge revenue stream," St. Romain said.

Every king cake is specially made, and of course, has the surprise baby hidden. They make around 30 different flavors of king cakes, from traditional cinnamon sugar to wedding cake and praline, each with prices ranging from $26 to $36.

"It always surprises me how many we make and sell with all of the competition, people say I’ve tried this one, tried that one but I'm back again," St. Romain said.

Throughout the season, Gambino’s will see both their local customers and some out-of-towners ready to try their first king cake.

"There's a lot of people coming in from out of town, that'll pick things up, they're coming in for parades throughout the season or balls and we get to meet a lot of people from around the country," St. Romain said.

Mardi Gras is March 4 this year. 

Gambino's is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you can't make it to their Goodwood location, the bakery can also ship your king cake.