Ann Reardon

Soccer Ball Cake

spinning soccer cake with video tutorial
Here’s how to make an epic spinning soccer ball cake in a few easy steps.

We’ve now moved into our new Melbourne home and most of the boxes are unpacked. Unfortunately, the ones labelled ‘How To Cook That’ are still waiting for my new kitchen to be finished before they can be completely unboxed. Dave and I have been super busy this week insulating, chopping, drilling and piecing together the kitchen. I covered up (photo below) but the insulation still irritated my arms, those little fibres always seem to find a way to get to you!

building our new kitchen

After several days of hard work, it became apparent just how long it was going to take us to complete the kitchen. We decided to hire someone to help speed things up. The big hold up now is the benchtops – they take two weeks to be made. After they are installed, we’ll need a plumber to connect the water and then, finally, we’ll be ready to bake! I’m so excited for the new kitchen, it’s going to be lovely. I actually filmed today’s video for you before we left Sydney … which is just as well or you’d have a cake full of sawdust and plaster board.

To make this soccer ball cake you will need:

1 lazy susan (optional but needed if you want your cake to spin)
1 round cake board
1 square or rectangle cake board.
21cm (8.27 inches) hemisphere tin
chocolate cake
Vanilla Buttercream (x2)
100g (3.53 ounces) milk chocolate chips
6 oreos
500g (17.64 ounces) white fondant
150g (5.29 ounces) black fondant
150g (5.29 ounces) desiccated coconut
1 Tblspn green liquid food coloring (or a few drops of gel food coloring with a tablespoon of water)
milk chocolate for attaching the coconut
fondant cutting template (click the image below to open full-size.

soccer cake cutting template

Make the chocolate cake as directed and pour the mixture into a hemisphere tin. Line the outside of the tin with baking paper to prevent it from overflowing.

Bake at 160C (320 degrees Fahrenheit) until a skewer comes out clean.

Once the bake is baked and cooled remove the paper and level off the top. Tip it out of the tin and trim off any browned cake from the outside.

Cut a one inch layer, followed by a 1cm (0.39 inches) layer, another 1 inch (2.54 centimetres) and then another 1 cm (0.39 inches) (see the video for explanation).

Place your bottom layer onto a round cake board and smother it generously in vanilla buttercream. Then sprinkle that with chocolate chips and oreos. Add the next 1 inch (2.54 centimetres) layer of cake, more buttercream chocolate chips and oreos. Add your top piece of cake.

Cover the whole thing in buttercream smoothing it out as much as you can. Take a piece of acetate and run it up and around the cake to smooth out all those lines. Once you’re happy with it, place it in the fridge for the buttercream to firm up, about 30 minutes to an hour will do.

Roll out some white fondant fairly thinly and then place it over the soccer ball. Lift and lower the fondant to remove the folds. Once it is smooth and you can see where your cake board is, use a knife to trim around just under the board.

Roll out some more white fondant and cut out hexagons. Then roll out some black and cut around the pentagon template, if you use a pizza cutter instead of a knife it doesn’t drag the fondant as you cut.

soccer cake ann reardon

Using a little water to make it stick, add one of your black pieces into place. Then surround that with white like you are making a flower. Cut a black bit in half and add it into the gaps at the bottom. Just let it hang over the base board and then trim it to size once it is on. Continue to add the rest of the pieces onto the ball in the same way.

Using a skewer drag down along the join so that it looks like the soccer ball is stitched together.

details soccer cake how to

Add some green liquid food coloring to your coconut and stir it through to make grass. If you don’t like coconut you could colour some buttercream green and pipe it on using a grass tip instead.

On your cake board add a dab of melted chocolate and then an upside down lazy susan. Hide the top of the lazy susan by smothering the top (now the base because it is upside down) in melted chocolate and then sprinkling it with the green coconut.

Add the ball into place, making sure it is in the centre. I used a little blu tac under the cake board to secure it. Then you can give it a spin.

spinning soccer cake

Also this week I collaborated with How Ridiculous – a great group of Aussie guys from Western Australia. I’ll put their magnus effect video below for you to see.

Copyright © 2017 Reardon Media Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

67 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    I used your recipe in an 8in hemisphere pan and a pyrex bowl, it’s not a ball but I made this, my first ever cake that’s not just a Victoria sponge. I am super proud of myself and tastes amazing (chocolate recipe with cherry conserve filling and chocolate butter icing for crumb coat)

    • Rating: 5

      Just to note I cooked this at 160c electric oven with the fan off for around 1hr 30 mins!!!
      First try fan was on and it burnt the outside but took forever to cook the inside.
      I used recipe plus half to fill the 2x 8 in bowls I should have doubled the recipe but it worked out quite well in the end

  2. Rating: 4.5

    Hello, hope you are well! I am making the soccer ball cake as per directions but my batter wasnt as liquid and I only had enough batter to fit the pan not fill up till the top. Also from the video I believe that you only made one hemisphere right? Hope to hear from you.
    Regards,
    Rubina

  3. Rating: 5

    Will it work just as well with a Pyrex bowl instead of a hemisphere tin?

  4. Rating: 4

    Fab instructions and recipe but I found the mixture didn’t come to the top of the tin but when baked luckily it reached the top.

  5. Rating: 4.5

    I really enjoyed making this cake!

    • Rating: 2.5

      Would be so useful to get an idea of cooking time on the recipe!

  6. Rating: 5

    Hi there just making the soccer ball cake but made a mistake with the tin size it’s 8 75 so slightly larger than what u recommend only just notice ! When I out the mixture in ? will it still turn out ok as I can’t top it up to the top of the tin please advise need HELP!!!! My grandsons birthday Saturday. Quick reply would be appreciated. Regards ‘in a mess joan

    • G’day Joan, You could bake the dome in the tin you have then make an extra round cake to put under it – then put the dome on top and trim to shape.

  7. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann
    Thanks for your amazing tips!
    Wondering if you have a vanilla cake recipe that works in the 8″ ball cake tin?
    Many thanks
    Maria

  8. Rating: 5

    This is what I’ve made:
    http://gifsstore.com/public/upload/gifs/15527525191552752514.gif
    Thanks again for your helpful tutorials! ?

    • wow that’s awesome I love that you made it fully 3d

  9. Rating: 5

    Hello. Thank you for sharring! The spinning idea is fantastic! I’ve tried it too with a whole ball… not very easy, but it turn out ok. Everybody was very surprised with it, especially the kids… they were spinning it on and on :)…
    It’s actually my 6 / 7th cake I ever made (I try from time to time to surprise my kids), so I’m not very good at this…
    Congratulations for your great works!

    • This is so fantastic Maria I was just admiring the gif that you sent, so good

  10. Rating: 5

    Can’t wait to try this. How long approximately do you cook the cake for? Thank you!

  11. I’m really keen to give this a try! What size cake tin did you use and how many slices can you get out of this cake?

    • Hi SR, my tin is 21cm across. As a rough guide this cake will serve 10-12 people

  12. Rating: 5

    I have never ever worked with fondant before but I did this! Very easy instructions, thanks so much!! I can’t wait to surprise my boyfriend with it for his bday!

    • fantastic job, looks great Rebekah ???⚽️

  13. Rating: 4.5

    Thank you so much for the easy to follow instructions!!!

    • Awesome work Ivy. Your cake looks fabulous!!

  14. Would this work as a full soccer ball? if so, are there any adjustments that would be needed, besides baking, sorting and filling a second half of the ball?

    • Rating: 5

      Love your channel / videos, thoroughly enjoyed making this for my 4 year old, thank you so much

  15. hie your cake ballnis amazing may i please have the measurements for the templates hexagon and pentagon

    • Hi Rumbidzai, Ann has made a template for you. Just click on the picture of the shapes above and it will open to a PDF. Print this without scaling oand it will print at the correct size.

  16. Rating: 4.5

    Thank you so much for this tutorial! The cake came out amazing ?

    • Your soccer ball cake looks amazing Tyeisha!

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