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Updated on April 26, 2023 by · This post may contain affiliate links ·

King Kong Facial Expressions Tutorial

Skill level: Intermediate

Guest instructor Timbo Sullivan of Cakes by Timbo and Baketopia joins us today for another amazing tutorial, this time featuring how he creates facial expressions on a figure. Timbo will teach you how to create a stylized King Kong cake and breaks down his process for creating the different facial features. Timbo also shows how to change the features to create different expressions, and creates King Kong with a closed and open mouth.

There's a lot to cover in this tutorial, so let's get our tools together and let's get started!

1:02:16 Minutes of Instruction

What You Will Learn

  • How to sculpt King Kong's face
  • Learn how to create different expressions and an open and closed mouth
  • How to create edible fur, teeth, scars and facial details
  • Learn how to color King Kong and create shiny areas on the eyes and teeth

Tutorial Chapters

  1. Carving the cake 0:43
  2. Covering in ganache 4:28
  3. Sculpting the face 4:51
  4. Adding facial details 14:04
  5. Making wrinkles and texture 19:10
  6. Adding the eyes 24:29
  7. Adding spot colors 28:47
  8. Dry brushing 30:25
  9. Airbrushing 31:33
  10. Adding fur 35:27
  11. Adding scars 39:21
  12. Painting the eyes 41:07
  13. Making the mouth 46:30
  14. Making the teeth 48:45
  15. Making the ears 57:53
  16. Final touches 59:40

More Course Preview

About Liz Marek

Liz Marek is a professional cake artist and recipe developer who has been teaching baking and cake decorating since 2008. She founded Artisan Cake Company in Portland, Oregon in 2009 and now runs Sugar Geek Show, where she publishes kitchen-tested recipes, food science explanations, and step-by-step tutorials.

Liz is best known for sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes. She won Netflix's Is It Cake? Holiday 2 in 2025 with a hyperrealistic Santa cake, and has competed on and won Food Network cake competitions. Cake Masters Magazine named her one of the top 10 cake artists in 2017. She is the author of Artisan Cake Company's Visual Guide to Cake Decorating and a graduate of the Oregon Culinary Institute.

Her focus is on explaining not just how a recipe works but why it works, so bakers can troubleshoot instead of guess. Every recipe on this site is tested before it's published.

Liz teaches full-length cake tutorials, including sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes, at Sugar Geek University.