To make this cake, you'll need paste food coloring and chocolate candy melts (available at baking-supply stores) as well as a few common candies and cookies.
1 box (16 oz.) pound cake mix
1/4 cup chocolate candy melts
Blue, red, and black paste food coloring
1 can (16 oz.) plus 1 cup vanilla frosting
1 mini chocolate sandwich cookie (Oreo®)
2 black candy-coated chocolates (M&M's®)
3-in. piece strawberry fruit leather (Fruit by the Foot®)
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 10 3/4-inch by 7-inch rectangular cake pan. Prepare the pound cake according to package directions. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 32 to 37 minutes). Transfer the cake pan to a wire rack and cool ten minutes. Invert the cake, remove the pan, and cool completely.
Step 2
Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Melt the chocolate candies in a microwave until melted, about 30 seconds. Spoon the chocolate into a resealable bag and snip a small corner from the bag. Pipe an outline of Sportacus's mustache with the chocolate freehand. (Each half of the mustache should be a line about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide.) Fill in the outline of the mustache with the chocolate. Refrigerate until set, about five minutes.
Step 3
Using a tiny dab of the blue paste food coloring, tint 2 tablespoons of the frosting light blue. Tint 3 tablespoons sky blue. Tint 1/4 cup of the frosting black and tint 2 tablespoons red. Tint 1 cup of the frosting dark blue. Spoon each color into separate resealable bags. Spoon 1/4 cup of vanilla frosting in a resealable bag. Tint the remaining frosting a pale pink. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the pink frosting into a resealable bag.
Step 4
Print the Sportacus Cake Template for reference and place the cake on a clean surface with the shorter end at the bottom. Trim away a 1-inch triangle from each of the top corners. (This will be the top of Sportacus's head.) Trim 1 1/2-inch by 4-inch triangles from the bottom corners of the cake. (You may want to use the knife to round the edges here and contour Sportacus's jaw line.) Reserve one of the large triangles and place it at the top right of the cake to make Sportacus's hat. You can also use the additional triangles to fill out the hat where needed. Use the photo for guidance. (The pieces will be completely frosted and will end up looking like one piece. )
Step 5
Use the dark-blue frosting to frost the hat 3 1/2 inches down from the top of cake. Frost the remaining part of the cake with the pale pink frosting. Snip small corners from the other frosting bags. Pipe white lines on the hat and the whites of Sportacus's eyes.
Step 6
Open the mini cookie and remove the cream with a dull knife. Place these in the centers of the eyes. Frost the tops of the cookie halves with the light-blue frosting. Pipe on his eyebrows, hair, and the lines on his hat with the black frosting. Add the black candies for the pupils. Pipe on the nose with the pink frosting.
Step 7
Cut the mouth from the fruit leather freehand. Place this mouth on the cake and pipe a thin line of red frosting around it. Peel the chocolate from the wax paper and attach to the cake to make the moustache. Pipe the goggles and band on the hat with the sky-blue and the black frosting. Add the vanilla wafers as the ears.
