Each batch of paczki requires 32 egg yolks and 16 egg whites, and that cost adds up at Creative Cakes Bakery in Tinley Park.

Each batch of paczki requires 32 egg yolks and 16 egg whites, and that cost adds up at Creative Cakes Bakery in Tinley Park. Shardaa Gray reports.

A food that many have come to know and love and consume once a year enjoys its time in the spotlight today. The paczek, plural paczki, is an ultra-rich pastry that is associated with Fat Tuesday at local bakeries.

Short answer: no. Think of the paczek as the jelly doughnut’s lavish cousin. While a good jelly doughnut is light and airy, a paczek is denser and more brioche-lik, thanks to more eggs in the dough.

Fat Tuesday is here, and bakeries across West Michigan are busy filling paczki orders as customers rush to get their hands on the traditional Polish treat. ()

In Metro Detroit, the focus is on Polish paczki, and bakeries from all backgrounds roll out the lard and sugar for fruit- and custard-filled confections. Polish bakeries are well-stocked, of course, but even the area's many Italian bakeries get in on the fun with the now-popular and expected cannoli paczki.

It's going to be a busy Fat Tuesday at Party Cake Shop in Pittsburgh's Brookline neighborhood where people will be buying dozens of paczki to celebrate Mardi Gras. The bakery located along Brookline Boulevard makes nearly a dozen different flavors of paczki that are available,