Eating king cake during Carnival season likely became a tradition in the 1980s. Getty Images/iStockphoto The colorful king cakes weren’t always a staple of Mardi Gras, but they definitely are now.

Dissolve the coffee in 1 tablespoon of boiling water. Put the eggs, baking spread, sugar, flour, baking powder and coffee into a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the mixture until smooth.

For that, I skipped melted chocolate in favor of cocoa powder. Melted chocolate tends to dry out cake batter, and unless you’re using 100 percent unsweetened chocolate, adding bar chocolate also ...

Let cake layers cool in baking pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove cakes from baking pans and let cool completely, parchment side down, on racks, 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours. Make the icing ...