FACE CAKE

My daughter has been wanting a face cake since seeing this commercial about a year ago:

Every time we saw that commercial she would say, "I want a face cake. They look cool."

Unfortunately for my daugther she's got a really cheap mom (I'm hoping one day she'll appreciate that fact). But that means that I would never spend 20+ dollars on a store cake. For every birthday (except 1) I've always made her a cake myself (I'm no Bakerella  so it's always box cakes) but I could never understand the idea of spending 15.00-20.00 for a grocery store cake over making my own with some Betty Crocker and icing that costs all of 4.00? Kids never care. Sugar is sugar is sugar (in my household anyway). So, I always make her cake myself. One year I made a Spongebob cake, another rainbow cupcakes , another year she just had to have those pull apart cupcakes (you know, the ones that look like a full cake on top but are a bunch of cupcakes pushed together that you pull apart?). So, I've always tried new and different things for her.

Granted, my cakes have never come out looking professional (see here and here). But again, I don't know how much my daughter cares because SUUUGGARRRRRRR  she loves me and the effort I put into it (most of the time I let her help).

Anyway. Back to the point. This year she wanted a face cake. So when I stumbled upon this picture on Pinterest I just knew I had to make her a face cake:

I started by buying a box pound cake mix, disposable sheet cake pans (12x8 I believe was the size, came in set of 3), fresh strawberries, and 2 containers of cool whip. The total for this cake did come out higher than I normally spend at 13.00 I believe (mostly because of the strawberries-I'm sure you could substitue frozen and it'd be cheaper).

I started by making the pound cake as per the directions. I only used 1 box but poured half into 2 separate sheet cake pans for 2 separate thin layers. After baking I took out of their pans to cool on the counter:

(that lone strawberry is there cuz I forgot to take a pic until I was starting the next step).

Then, after they both had cooled I spread cool whip on 1 side and pressed slice strawberries into it:

Yum, looks great already. I carefully placed the other thin layer of pound cake on top of the strawberries and pressed gently:

After which I began to frost the whole darn thing. I needed a smooth surface for make face:

I used both cool whip containers.

Then, per the instructions from the blog, I found a pic of daughter and contrasted it in severe black and white:

and cut out the stencil with a razor blade:

So far so good. This is where it went downhill. I froze the cake to get a solid surface to work with and I made the cocoa sifted stencil on top:

I messed up. My problem was the paper. It was basic computer paper and not stiff enough. So, when I sifted powder on it and tried to lift it straight up it bent and bowed in the middle under the weight of the cocoa causing some of the powder to fall on the cake. Le sigh.

 

I was quite disappointed in my finished product. This looks like the Asian version of my daughter. And she's not Asian, she's Mexican (well, a quarter Mexican). So, I was rather disappointed. I know the reason it failed and if I ever did it again I would use a heavy duty card stock type of paper. That way it can take the weight of the cocoa when I dust it on.

 

I don't think my daughter was all that pleased but she knew I tried and was upset with the outcome and, bless her heart, she tried to make me feel better on her birthday about her cake! She's a really good 13 year old.

 

Anyway. There was my Pinterest try and FAIL but not cuz it didn't work but because it's got some kinks in it. So, all those out there reading-- learn from my mistakes!!!! This was a really neat idea and I wanna try again cuz it could absolutely turn out neat-o.