Panda Bear Cake For Miranda

Made my first Panda Cake and it's dedicated to my daughter Miranda who is off at college. Got the inspiration from here PANDA BEAR CAKE W/TEMPLATE

You will have leftover cake so why not crumble it up into a bowl add some leftover frosting and make a few cake pops :) don't want to let all that cake go to waste!

 INGREDIENTS:
2 boxes Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil’s food or yellow cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix boxes
1 1/2 containers (1 lb each) Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy chocolate frosting
Black food color
1 large marshmallow
2 small round chocolate-covered creamy mints
Tray or cardboard (20x18 inches), covered with waxed paper or foil
1 1/2 containers (1 lb each) Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting

***FOR BLACK FROSTING*** just take dark chocolate fudge frosting and add black food coloring--->if you don't have any black food coloring just use BLACK GEL which is found in the baking section :)

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Make and bake 1 cake mix as directed on box for 2 (8-inch) round pans, using water, oil and eggs. Make and bake second cake

as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan. Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Refrigerate or freeze cakes 1 hour until firm.

2 Meanwhile, in medium bowl, mix 1 container plus 1 cup chocolate frosting with food color to make black frosting. Cut marshmallow in half crosswise. For eyes, attach 1 mint to each marshmallow slice with frosting; set aside.

3 Using serrated knife, cut off top rounded portion of each cake to level surface. Turn cakes cut sides down. Cut cakes as shown in template. Place cake pieces on tray as directed in template, attaching to tray and each other with small amount of frosting.

4 To “crumb-coat” cake, spread thin layer of vanilla frosting over head and thin layer of black frosting over ears, body and paws to seal in crumbs. Refrigerate or freeze cake 30 to 60 minutes.

5 Frost head with some of remaining vanilla frosting. Frost rest of cake with some of remaining black frosting. To pipe on panda features, spoon vanilla and black frosting's into separate resealable food-storage plastic freezer bags and cut small tip off 1 bottom corner of each bag.

6 Pipe or spread vanilla frosting on body to create chest. Pipe or spread black frosting on head for patches around eyes. Place marshmallow eyes on patches. Pipe or spread black frosting on snout for nose and mouth. Pipe or spread vanilla frosting on back paws to create paw prints. Pipe outline around body and front legs with black frosting. Fill in outline with additional black frosting so front legs have a thicker layer of frosting than white chest. Using metal spatula, create a different texture on the body and front legs to further define legs from chest and back paws.