Name: Tweety Bird Cake
Cook time: P0Y0M0DT1H0M0.000S
Total time: P0Y0M0DT5H30M0.000S
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Ingredients: 6 sticks (1 1/2 pounds) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 4 cups confectioners’ sugar; 1/3 cup heavy cream; 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; Black gel food coloring; Blue gel food coloring; Orange gel food coloring; Yellow gel food coloring; Nonstick cooking spray, for the pans; One 13.25-ounce box yellow cake mix (plus required ingredients) (see Cook’s Note); 3/4 cup mixed yellow, blue, orange and white sprinkles; 1 1/4 cups mixed yellow sprinkles and nonpareils; 2 teaspoons blue sprinkles; 2 teaspoons orange sprinkles; 2 teaspoons white sprinkles

Directions

Special equipment:

an image of your choosing of Tweety Bird’s face with his lips/beak closed; an 8-inch cardboard cake round; 3 piping bags fitted with small plain tips (such as #4); 2 piping bags fitted with slightly larger tips (such as #10 or #802)

For the frosting and cake topper: Beat the butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar until completely smooth. With the motor running, drizzle in the cream. Beat in the vanilla and salt. Increase the speed to high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. 
For the stencil, print an image of your choosing of Tweety Bird’s face with his lips/beak closed, scaling it to fit in the middle of an 8-inch cake round with about an inch to spare all around. Invert the picture and trace the outline with a black marker to create a mirror image (so it will be the actual image when you flip it onto the cake). Invert a 7-inch diameter bowl over the image and draw a circle around the image to frame it. Tape the traced image onto a silicon baking mat on a baking sheet. Tape a piece of wax paper over the image.
Color about 1/2 cup of frosting with black gel coloring. Place in a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip (such as a #4). Color about 1/4 cup of frosting blue and 1/4 cup of frosting orange. Place both in piping bags fitted with small plain tips (such as #4). Place about 1/2 cup white frosting in a piping bag fitted with a slightly larger tip (such as #10 or #802). Color the rest of the frosting yellow. Place about 1/2 cup of the yellow frosting in a piping bag with the same slightly larger tip (#10 or #802) as the white.
Use the black frosting to trace all of the lines on the stencil except the lips/beak and the round frame. Outline the round frame with the blue. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes. Use the blue to fill in the smallest part of the eyes and the orange to make the lips/beak. Freeze again until firm, about 30 minutes. Use the white to fill in the whites of the eyes and freeze again until firm, about 30 minutes. Use the yellow to fill in the face. Use an offset spatula to carefully spread the yellow to smooth out the lines from the piping bag. Freeze again until very firm, at least 30 minutes or longer.
Pipe white frosting to fill in the entire circle and also to pipe over the face. Carefully smooth with an offset spatula. Freeze until very firm, about 2 hours.
Meanwhile, for the cake: Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment.
Prepare the cake batter according to package directions. Stir 3/4 cup sprinkles into the prepared batter and divide between the pans. Bake according to package directions. Cool the cakes in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans and cool completely on the rack.
Level the cake layers by slicing off the rounded tops with a serrated knife. Place 1 cake layer on an 8-inch cardboard cake round. Use the remaining yellow frosting to frost in between the layers and frost the entire cake. (It doesn’t have to be completely neat as it will be covered in sprinkles.)
For the sprinkles: Combine the yellow, blue, orange and white sprinkles in a small bowl. Holding the cake over a rimmed baking sheet to collect sprinkles that fall, cover the top and sides thoroughly in sprinkles so almost no frosting shows.
Place the cake on a serving plate or cake stand. Remove the Tweety Bird face from the freezer and carefully lift it up with the wax paper and slide the palm of your hand under it. Quickly but carefully invert the round onto the cake and peel off the wax paper, revealing the image right-side up. Serve immediately as the frosting with the image will begin to soften quickly.

Cook’s Note

If you prefer to make a from-scratch cake instead of using a boxed mix, you can make the batter (but not the frosting) from Food Network’s The Best Vanilla Cake recipe and bake it as directed above.