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How to make a soccer ball cake

GOAL!

3 goals in the last game of the season. Finally, the Princess Cupcake has figured out this whole soccer thing. She’s in the mix, she’s defending the goal, she’s kicking it in. She’s doing a heck of a lot better at 4 years old than I would at well, we won’t disclose my age since I’ve recently added another candle. Ouch.

It seemed only fitting that to conclude a successful season, we celebrate with a SOCCER BALL CAKE.

But what’s better than a soccer ball cake, but a soccer ball cake with tiny pennant banner with the team name and logo draped across it? I know, a soccer ball cake with a tiny pennant banner AND little mini players kicking and running and showing their preschool skills all around the perimeter.

soccer star

Total score.

Here’s what you need to make a soccer ball cake and how to do it!

Materials:

  • Soccer ball cake pan (This one used in these photos was from Wilton)
  • Marshmallow fondant in white
  • Cake mix or homemade (I cheated this time and made a Duncan Hines finest chocolate fudge mix. It’s a good enough base for some of the finer bakeries around here, I can cheat with it once in a while…)
  • Black fondant – I purchased the Wilton brand from Michaels. I have black food gel color and I could have dyed the marshmallow fondant myself, but I thought it would take forever to get it black as the black on a soccer ball.
  • Buttercream frosting
  • Green gel food color
  • Decorating bag, coupler and star tip
  • Lollipop sticks
  • Tape
  • Photos of your superstars in action
  • Star punch
  • Small hole punch
  • Scissors
  • Ribbon or embroidery thread
  • Glue dots
  • Grilling skewers
  • Paper
  • Pen/Pencil

Here’s how to make soccer ball cake:

Bake soccer cake according to the directions on the soccer ball cake pan. Keep the photo from the label from the cake pan – you’ll refer to it when putting your cake together.

Level the bottom of the soccer ball.

Flip it over so the round part is on top and place on your plate or cookie sheet. I covered a small pizza pan with non-stick aluminum foil for my base.

Make your buttercream frosting while the soccer cake is cooling completely. I make my own buttercream frosting by guesstimate. I take just less than a stick of softened butter, about ¼ cup of Crisco, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, a smidge of butter extract, about 4 cups of powdered sugar and a few tablespoons of milk and mix for several minutes. If it’s not the consistency I want, I add either milk or powdered sugar.

Do a light layer of buttercream frosting all over the soccer ball. Keep the rest of the buttercream handy.

Roll out your marshmallow fondant to about 1/8 inch thick and carefully drape over your cake. Smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles.

Take a piece of paper and trace the soccer shapes on the soccer ball pan. Cut these out, they are going to be your templates for the black on top of your soccer ball cake. Note the middle of the ball has 5 sides, the others have 6.

I laid the template on top of the cake and lightly made an impression with the dull side of a knife into the marshmallow fondant so I had an estimate of where the soccer ball shapes should go.

Roll out your black fondant to about 1/8 of an inch. Use your templates and a small sharp knife and cut out the middle shape and side shapes.

Put them on the cake in a soccer ball pattern. You can adhere fondant to fondant by lightly brushing one side with either water or my preference, vanilla.

I went an extra step and outlined the shapes on the soccer ball with a clear gel writer.

The ball is done!

Grass

Dye the remaining buttercream with the green food coloring. I used Duff’s food color gels in neon. It’s a bit astro-turffy I guess.

Put the buttercream into your pastry bag with star tip and use it to make “grass” on the cookiesheet surrounding the cake. Leave some open spots for your soccer players.

The grass is done!

how to make a soccer ball cake
how to make a soccer ball cake

Soccer players

Find some photos of your soccer team doing action shots, kicking, running, defending the goal, etc. Don’t forget the coach!

Cut out the silhouettes of the superstars.

Tape photo cutouts to the lollipop sticks.

Grab a pinch of your marshmallow fondant and roll into a ball.

Push the soccer player on a stick into the fondant ball.

Position the fondant ball soccer players around the cake in the grass.

Cover the fondant ball with more “grass” and all around the edges. This will help hold it in place.

Soccer players are done!

how to make a cake banner

Banner

Grab some colored cardstock and punch out stars. One of each letter in your teams name + one or two for the logo. Don’t make it too long or else your banner will sag onto the cake.

Cut two opposite sides of the star of so it looks like a Star Trek symbol.

Trim off the ends so it’s now a triangle.

Punch a small hole or two (if using embroidery thread) in the wide part of the triangle.

Write your letters with sharpie on the triangles.

Thread the triangles onto your ribbon spacing them evenly.

If you use one hole, your triangles may try to turn on you. I used some glue dots to hold them in place against the ribbon.

Tie each end of the ribbon to the grilling skewer.

Position on top of the cake.

Banner is done!

The kids LOVED the mini soccer player “puppets” of themselves and had fun with them after pulling them out of the fondant. (They slide out easily.) You’ll need to move them anyway to cut the cake.

You could adapt this to be a baseball cake too – which happens to be the next sports season for the Princess starting… this week! Check back in about 2 months to see the baseball version 🙂 Or click here to see the baseball cupcakes from last season’s wrap party.

This soccer ball cake totally goes into the win column.

More Cake & Birthday Goodness
Halloween Mummy Cupcakes
Monkey Cupcakes
Mermaid Birthday Party

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