Update (2-9-11): You may want to hesitate to buy a Publix king cake this year. The king cakes I saw there today were absurdly flat, like somebody forgot to add yeast.
My blog stats indicate that people are eager to know whether the king cakes sold at Publix are worth buying.
Answer: They are, indeed. Publix king cakes aren’t going to compare to a masterpiece from Randazzo’s, but I assume if you’re close enough to New Orleans to get the real thing, you’re not looking for advice on grocery-store king cakes.
The first year we bought a Publix king cake in Huntsville, Alabama, the bakery folks told us they imported the unbaked cakes from someplace in Louisiana, then baked and decorated them at the store. Over the past couple of years, it seems like they may have discovered that a king cake is pretty much a giant French-bread cinnamon roll coated in colored icing and sugar, and they’re making their own version.
Publix may include mysteriously gigantic plastic babies in their king cakes, but they’re got the basics of the delicacy down: Publix king cakes aren’t overly sweet, they’re pretty and they’re big enough to serve a crowd at a fair price.
Buy one. You won’t be sorry.
Entirely Adequate 
If you want a good king cake, locally in Huntsville, call up the Po Boy Factory and get one from them. They bring them in; yummy!
When Publix changed over to doing their own, I could tell. They are adequate.
I got one at the Po Boy Factory last year. Good, but pricey. I might make my own this year.
I bought two king cakes from Publix in Seffner last year and they were HORRIBLE! Before I go any further, let me say that I absolutely love Publix. They opened a store in the neighborhood where I grew up when I was about 8 years old. I’m 62 and still very rarely go anywhere else.
The cakes I got last year were small, flat, and over-baked to within a hair’s breadth of truly burnt. They actually cracked when cut. I got them for work and was embarrassed to take them in, but it was too late to order from Gambino’s as I had in the past. Besides, I needed two and that makes FedEx a little expensive.
I didn’t get the baby, so someone else is buying this year. I just hope she does better than I did.
Obviously the finished product varies by store bakery. Our bakery folks do a great job, especially considering that most of them don’t even know what a king cake is until they’re confronted with a ball of dough and a a photograph. I hope your office king cake this year is better!
[…] cake in Huntsville this year. The king cakes at Publix have gone downhill since the days in which the bakery reportedly imported simple, unbaked cakes from Louisiana, baking and decorating them in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. This year, the offerings were […]