Sunflour Bakehaus Hums on Paczki Day

The line forms early at on Fat Tuesday. Paczki, from Farm Hills Donuts in Farmington Hills, and King Cakes baked on-site fly out the door in white bakery boxes.

Shop owners Becky Burns and Jeff Pavlik are constantly on the move as the phone rings with last-minute orders and customers line up to collect the sweet, deep-fried treats on their way to work and school. While a few people pass up the traditional Polish fare, most say they enjoy a paczki (rarely two) on the day before the start of the Lenten season, observed in the Christian faith.

Farmington High student David Carter, 17, has made Sunflour Bakehaus his first stop on Fat Tuesday since 2007. He started taking King Cakes, a decadent cinnamon coffee cake drenched in gold, green and purple frosting, to school.

What makes the King Cake special is a small trinket hidden underneath one of the pieces. "Whoever gets it has good luck for the rest of the year," Burns explained.

Bringing the cakes to his French class "seemed appropriate," Carter said, given the holiday's connection with New Orleans' French Quarter. "And it's good food."

Carter's mother Sandy Roth works in a gym and said while she doesn't eat paczki, her co-workers would probably bring some in today.

"We call it job security," she joked.