Tom's 12th Birthday Cake

by Henrietta Newman
(Springboro, PA)

For my son Tom's 12th birthday I made him a simple "Punisher" cake. He is really into skulls and all that stuff so this was perfect.

I was short on time so I used 2 Betty Crocker strawberry cake mixes (9x13 pan size). I had this large roasting pan so cooked it in that.

After the cake was cooled I used a wooden spoon handle to make "holes" in the cake evenly spaced. I then pureed a small bag of frozen strawberries in the blender and added a bit of water to thin it to pouring consistency. I poured this slowly over the entire cake. I then let the cake sit in the fridge overnight. The next morning I frosted it with a can of whipped vanilla frosting. Chill it again to set frosting.

I had Tom draw out the image he wanted on 2 sheets of 8x11 paper (taped together). We laid this on top of the frosted cake and I traced around it with a toothpick. I used Wilton's black food coloring to color some more whipped frosting dark black and traced the skull. I used a tube of red icing/gel for the crack.

He really loved the cake and everyone enjoyed it.