Soccer Ball Cake
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Is the pan you used 6 inches or 8 inches?
Made this cake for my soccer-loving daughter who had a birthday party on the same day as the Sweden England World Cup match.
She has Swedish and English heritage, so it worked out well,
it was a big hit. Thanks for the great instructions.
Great work Mark!
Awesome recepi ? My son asked me for a soccor ball cake for his 14th birthday and I had no idea how to make it… Thanks for the video and the simple steps ..Big help…Thanks heaps .. God bless
Love this and I’m going to try making for this weekend. Just wondering how long you bake the hemisphere for as video doesn’t say xx
Hi Janis, Because it is so big it takes a while, if I remember correctly I think you’ll need to allow at least an hour. Start checking it at 30 mins and every 10 minas after that, just stick a knife in the centre and if it comes out with runny cake batter on it you’re not done.
Thanks for this. What is that device that you attached to your knife in order to cut evenly?
Hi Tanille, This is called a cake layer slicer guide. These help you cut layers evenly. You can get them at cake decorating stores or online at Amazon or ebay. They are handy to have but not essential.
Just to confirm- the bottom if this cake is flat? Am i right? It is not a sphere?
Correct Tanille.
Hi! The chocolate cake recipe, is it for one football or two?
Hi Sofia, The cake recipe is for one hemisphere.
Thank you again for your easy guide to great cakes! My son loves his soccer ball cake that spins!
Well done Amanda, It looks great!
Hi want to make your soccer cake as the video but need to make the cake on Wednesday, ice on Thursday for a party on the Saturday. I thought I would make the buttercream without cream. Cake will be fully decorated by Thursday evening how should I store the cake for Saturday?
Hi Julie, Cakes are always better fresh. I wouldn’t go more than 3 days myself (make Thursday, decorate friday.) If the cake is fully covered with fondant and you can store it in a cool airconditioned room, in a cake box away from direct sunlight or in a cool. Ann is happy to put her in the fridge overnight and it doesn’t impact the fondant heavily, but that is not true of all refridgerators. I would probably go with that, Just be aware that when you take the cake from the fridge that the change in temperature can cause condensation that impacts on the fondant.
Thank you so much for the recipe! I was wondering: in the recipe it says 8 eggs, but in the video you have 12.
Hi Maria, 8 eggs will be sufficient. Ann made extra mix at the time, but the quantities given are correct.
Thanks for your recipe!? Give me an idea to make my boyfriend’s birthday cake.
Made it! Your template was extremely helpful, thank you for sharing
Well done Kimberly!
HI, can I make this cake the day before? If so, how do you recommend I store it given the buttercream layers and fondant covering? Thanks so much. 🙂
Hi Marta, You can make the cake the day prior. If it is fully covered in fondant (as this cake is) and kept in a cool place it should be fine overnight. An air conditioned room works well where your cake is out of reach of any direct sunlight. Having said that While you may hear otherwise, Fondant cakes can be put in a good fridge that minimizes moisture. It is the moisture that causes havoc. The challenge is even if you have a suitable fridge, when you take the cake out you can get condensation on the cake that can spoil your fondant. To minimize condensation you need to keep warm air away from your cake and let it come to room temperature slowly. That can be very difficult to do and some fondants are less tolerant than others.
Thanks for that. I’ll post a pic once my cake is finished 🙂
So the cake was a big hit. I made the full ball, vanilla cake for one half and chocolate for the other. The vanilla buttercream (with Oreos) went down well too. My ball ‘deflated’ just a little overnight given I had 2 semicircle cakes stacked on top of one another so if you could assemble on the day I would. Thanks again for your great instructions. 🙂
Hi Marta, Great job. Your soccer ball cake looks amazing! If you are doing the full sphere, then it would be worth using supports to stop the weight of the top layers, flattening the base.
Hi! I loved this and made it for my son’s birthday party. I had a problem getting the cut fondant pieces to stay in place – they kept sliding down the cake. I used water to adhere it and wasn’t sure what I did wrong. I left it raised on a bowl and when i came back, pieces were falling off the cake. Once I got all the pieces on and left it flat on the table they stayed in place ok (they didn’t have anywhere to slide) but they separated from each other.
Hi Lindy, Did you cover the frosted cake entirely with white fondant first. You would only need a spot of water to stick the fondant to the fondant, which should not allow it to slide around. I watched Ann make this and the fondant pieces didn’t slide around at all. Perhaps your fondant was a particularly soft kind. It might help to cut the shapes and let them firm up a little on the bench before placing them on the cake.
Love making your cakes. What size is the tin did you use?
Hi Liz, This tin was about 9 inches across.
Hi ann loved your football cake and gave it a try…it did not turn out very neat but gave it a try…made it for my brother’s birthday…thank you so much…me and my daughters love watching you…let us know when you are visiting Dubai
Great work Nisha.
hey love your vids.So are you gonna be on friday afternoon or friday morning
Yes no recipe quantities how many eggs, sugar, etc.. please I love to bake and I would love to make this cake!
Hi Kat, If you click on the link for the chocolate cake it will take you to the recipe with all the quantities for the cake. Similarly for the buttercream frosting. All other relevant quantities are provided.
You forgot to give us the recipe for the football chocolate cake. In the video there was no quantities for the chocolate cake either. Can you please give us the quantities for the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, choc chips,butter, sugar, etc
Hi Mariam, If you click on the link for the chocolate cake it will take you to the recipe with all the quantities.
Love your videos. Thank you so much.
I saw your tutorial on soccer ball spinning cake, but if I want to make a motorized spinning cake which rotates by itself like a carousel how do I do that. Please help
Hi Noora, Here is an example of one that Ann has done previously: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/space-invaders-cake/