You might be lucky you didn't buy one. You could have cracked a tooth when you bit into a plastic baby. That happens, and it *really* makes people think, "WTF, Nola!?"

The cakes are said to have originated, in different form, in Britain and elsewhere Europe, where people still serve them on Epiphany. They're known there as "Twelfth Cakes" (for Twelfth Night, Jan. 6).