My sister and I wanted to have a Mardi Gras party for our girls, and this cake was the perfect way to make things cheap and simple. I bought 3 cans of cinnamon roll dough from the refrigerated section of the store (with the pizza doughs, crescent rolls, and refrigerated cookie doughs). I just unrolled the strands in each can (mine came in about 6 strands), smashed them together, folded in half and rolled a little. I repeated this with each can, shaped the 3 logs into a ring and smooshed those together, twisted them a little bit, and then baked. It only took me 25 minutes to bake, so do watch the time carefully (I know my oven is a little hotter than most, but I think 50-60 min. might burn for most people). I forgot to cover with foil, but will do so next time. I used the icing that came with the cinnamon rolls, and added food coloring to the 3 tubs of icing to make green, yellow, and purple. I cut a hole in the bottom of the cake, stuck the baby in and filled it back up and iced over the bottom (which did make things messy!) I didn't do as neat a job as I could have, but we were just having fun. Everyone raved about this cake (more so than when I bake from scratch...ahem!). The kids had a blast with it and want to make another cake again soon. I think this cake does not have to be limited to Mardi Gras--my sister said she would like to make this for a brunch (minus the food coloring and plastic baby, of course!). Thanks for the great idea!

love this especially the addition by someone who said they used one orange roll in the braid. Mardi Gras colors are green, gold and purple.

EASY EASY but with a little tweaking

I used 2 cans of cinnamon rolls from ALDI, unrolled them, separated into 4 strands, braided them together and formed the braids into a ring. I'm from New Orleans and usually make one from scratch. This was the BEST kingcake we've ever had!!! I used the icing that came with the cinnamon rolls and sprinkled colored sugar. AWESOME! My kids are so happy to have fresh king cake in IL!

I made this for the Superbowl and it was a hit! Great idea for future Mardi-Gras parties as store bought King Cakes in Western MD are unheard of!

I made this for my French class for Mardi Gras. I couldnt find the sweet role so I used cinnimon roles instead. I thought this was a really fun recipe.

It was wonderful, but I have a child that is allergic to red dye, so I had to use yellow, purple, and blue instead. When I did that, nobody knew it was for Mardi Gras.

Worked out great! Instead of drizziling the frosting all over, I did sections of the colors. I thought it looked prettier

This makes a great king cake! To get purple, mix the blue and red colors like the recipe explains. I've used both the sweet orange roll dough and generic cinnamon roll dough to make this, and both cake out great. Everyone loves eating it, and it looks great too. Toppings: I colored vanilla whipped frosting with gold and purple (red+blue) food coloring, and then used green sugar sprinkles for a most festive look. THANKS FOR A GREAT AND TIME-SAVING KING CAKE!

Well, imagine my surprise when I realized that my Pillsbury cinnamon rolls weren't in pinwheels like they used to be. I should have read more of the reviews to see that others just rolled their dough together and formed the ring. We just made king cake rolls and colored the icing that comes with the rolls and sprinkled a little clear sugar crystals on top. Kids enjoyed it and we had fun. We were making it just for us so no big deal. Kinda reminded me of monkey bread. I liked the idea of making ourselves b/c my main complaint with store bought ones were that they were too dry and way too much sugar and icing on top. I know, that's the point but I'm trying not to turn everyone in my family into diabetics if I can help it!!