TV presenter's attempt to bake a Jacinda Ardern cake fails spectacularly

New Zealand TV presenter Laura Daniel tried to bake a cake that looked like the country's prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

But it went badly wrong.

Purportedly based on a picture of Ardern from the front cover of a recent biography, "The Story Behind An Extraordinary Leader," the cake has googly blue eyes, bright red lips and shiny black strands of hair. There even appears to be a set of real human teeth set into the icing.

The horrifying creation caused an online sensation, and Daniel even apologized to the nation's leader for the result.

"They say don't bake your heroes. But I wanted to try anyway," she wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.

She tagged Ardern in the post, saying she was "deeply sorry."

"I truly tried my best with what I had available," the post continues.

Ardern responded on Instagram with a flushed face emoji.

The post attracted hundreds of comments, with people mainly expressing either amusement or terror at the creation.

One person even asked if the presenter used "someone's real dentures."

Ardern has been widely praised for her leadership during the coronavirus crisis.

The New Zealand leader shut the country's borders to foreign visitors on March 19 and announced a four-week lockdown on March 23, requiring all non-essential workers to stay at home except for grocery shopping or exercising nearby.

The country has carried out widespread testing and has recorded 1,401 coronavirus cases and nine deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday, Ardern said that she and her cabinet would take a 20% pay cut for the next six months because of the pandemic.