Traditionally, Gulf Coast king cakes have usually been topped with icing or sugar typically colored in purple, green, and gold. The symbolic meaning of these colors being justice, faith, and power respectively. The purple, green and gold colored sugar and icing appeared after 1872, when the Krewe of Rex selected the colors for its opening Mardi Gras parade.

Currently, some bakers have offered different decorative king cake renditions for other holidays such as green and red icing king cakes for Christmas, red and pink for Valentine’s Day, and green and white for St. Patrick’s Day. In New Orleans, specialty king cake toppings and decorations have been tailored to the New Orleans Saints colors of black and gold, Louisiana State University colors of purple and gold and orange for Halloween.