How to Make Ball Cakes and Toppers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spherical or half spherical cakes can be challenging to make. In this tutorial, I explain how I make ball cakes and fondant ball toppers which can be used for soccer/football, basketball and other spherical ball themed cakes . The beauty of my method is that the cakes and toppers come out perfectly round and looking like real balls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOOLS:

(1) 6″ Wilton Ball Pans

(2) Hexagon and Pentagon Cutters (See Note 1)

(3) Sharp Blade or X-Acto Knife

(4) Rolling Pin

(5) Fondant Stitching Wheel

(6) Paint Brush

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIBLE COMPONENTS:

(1) Fondant

(2) Black Color Paste

(3) Water or Vodka

(4) Baked and Frosted Cake (See Note 2)

(5) Melted White Chocolate

(6) Shortening

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES:

(1) If you do not have these cutters, a simple google image search would provide pictures. Ensure that the hexagon and pentagon pictures you use have the same dimensions. You can print out these pictures or simply place a paper on your monitor and trace them out (like I did) and cut them to make your templates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) The cake was baked in the same 6″ Wilton Ball Pan I used in making the shell of the balls. Be sure not to fill the cake with a lot of frosting so the frosted cake can still fit in the shell. If making a full sphere, bake two cakes and merge them while frosting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE PROCESS:

(1) Make the fondant cases. Roll out white fondant. Dust the outside of a 6″ Wilton ball pan with icing sugar and drape the fondant over the pan. Stretch out the fondant to fit the pan and cut off the excess fondant. Leave the covered pan this way for about 48 hours or until the fondant it hard enough to keep its shape. Remove the pan from underneath the fondant. If you are making a full sphere, make two fondant cases. If you are making a basket ball, use orange fondant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) If you are making a full sphere fondant topper, use melted white chocolate to join both fondant cases together and leave the chocolate to set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) For Football Toppers, Half Football Toppers and Half Football Cakes: Roll out black and white fondant and use the cutters or template to cut out hexagons and pentagons. Stitch the sides of the cutouts using a fondant stitching wheel. Brush the fondant shell with a bit of water and stick the cutouts on it. Footballs usually have black pentagons surrounded by white hexagons. Keep this pattern in mind while sticking the cutouts on the shell. When you are done with the cutouts, use a bit of water or vodka to brush off any icing sugar or corn starch residue on the football. I will suggest that you use shortening instead of water/vodka to brush/clean the black hexagons on football cakes so they don’t bleed into the white pentagons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) For Full Basketball Toppers and Half Basketball Toppers: Roll out black fondant and cut them into 5mm strings. Stick the strings on the fondant case using the picture of a basketball as guide. Ensure that one of the black stings cover the part where both spheres are joined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) For Half Football Cakes: Place your frosted cake on your decorated cake (or cake board), cover the cake with the created football shell and finish the look by covering the base of the football with green fondant (or buttercream) for grass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) For Full Football Cakes: (i) Starting from the top, start covering one of the fondant cases with black and white fondant pentagons and hexagons and stop when you get to the base of the fondant sphere; (ii) Stick that fondant case to the top of your finished cake (or cake board) using melted white chocolate; (iii) Place the baked and frosted ball cake into the fondant case on the cake; (iv) Cover the cake with the second fondant sphere sealing both spheres with melted white chocolate; (v) Finish the cake by covering the spheres with black and white fondant pentagons and hexagons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) For Full Basketball Cakes: (i) Stick one of the fondant cases to your finished cake (or cake board) using melted white chocolate; (ii) Place the baked and frosted ball cake into the fondant case on the cake; (iii) Cover the cake with the second fondant sphere sealing both spheres with melted white chocolate; (iv) Finish the cake by sticking black fondant strings to the sphere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

END NOTES:

(1) For complete ball cakes and toppers, it will be helpful to carve out a depression on top of the cake tier when frosting it. This will help the ball sit well on the cake and reduce the risk of it rolling off during transportation.

(2) Note that the frosting would soften the fondant as it sits thus making cutting the cake possible.

(3) For a complete tutorial on how the Football Cake was made, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) For a tutorial on how to make fondant football cake tiers, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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