My Brother's 16th Prestige

Haha, I know, I know, a 16th prestige isn't possible, according to the game that is (MW3). In my brother's case, however, it did in fact happen. January 14, 2012 was my brother's 16th birthday, and I figured since 16 is considered a big birthday that I would create a cake for him. Originally my plan was to go Ghost Adventures with this, because it's his favorite TV show and we bond over it. But what he asked for was a Call of Duty cake, and I was not about to disappoint a birthday boy.

Let me first say this cake was a pain in the butt. Not the biggest one, but second biggest.The cake is devil's food, because my brother loves chocolate cakes, covered in the same home-made icing I made for my mom's cake. What made this cake such a pain was because my boyfriend and I tried new things, modeling chocolate being one of them. I must admit though that it was a little dried out because I did not ice over where we cut the face out (oops!). The helmet itself was the biggest problem for this cake because I wanted to try a marshmallow fondant this time. I had read great reviews on it and thought it would be a good shot. My boyfriend feels like it was the biggest lie ever and never wants to even hear the name "marshmallow fondant" again. Just to be clear, I followed the instructions exactly, and it came out horrible and was a bear to work with. We have no clue why.

From what you can see in the picture, the only thing actually cake was the soldier's head. The accessories on the helmet and around the head were cereal treats (home-made) covered in modeling chocolate (also home-made). I, myself, had created everything except for the pistol and the goggles worn by the soldier.

So, I started off by baking two cakes (from the pan you'd use to make a doll dress from). Then my boyfriend (we'll call him KettlePopped) leveled both cakes and started shaping the face.

While I worked on the grenade, flashlight, headset, battery pack, C4 package, and random helmet gadget (pictured in front), KettlePopped worked solely on the pistol and goggles. He wanted the pistol to be as detailed as possible, knowing my dad is a veteran and would have been looking for such details.

I made sure to add extra details to the soldier's helmet, such as number of kills, patches, and blood.

I decorated the kitchen in BDU cups, plates, napkins, and also had little planes and helicopters hanging from the ceiling. My brother loved his cake, and didn't want to cut into his either. Just as my mom does, to this day he compares every cake I make to his, thinking his was best. Silly boy.

Note: This cake took from January 12th-14th. Also, it took 19.5 hours of non-stop work and no sleep.