Bashas’ donating 10% of Tuesday’s pączki sales to St. Vincent de Paul

Not even the covid-19 panemic can cancel Bashas’ annual Fat Tuesday specials on pączki and Mardi Gras king cakes.

More than 50 Bashas’ bakeries in Arizona will be selling pączki – Polish pastries similar to jelly doughnuts but richer-tasting – for 75 cents apiece or $2.99 for a half-dozen.

Pączki (pronounced ‘‘poonch-kee’’) are glazed or sugared, and filled with lemon, raspberry, or custard filling. Bashas’ is the only Arizona grocer that makes them from scratch.

The grocery chain will donate 10% of all pączki sales Tuesday to St. Vincent de Paul.

Colorful king cakes come with beads and a small plastic baby figure that customers can insert into the cake. (By tradition, the person who finds the baby earns a year of good luck.)

The king cakes are $5.99 apiece.