I need to do a small beach ball for a cake, and I'm not sure of the best way to go about it. Maybe cover a small styro ball with fondant cut-outs to get the typical red/blue/yellow pattern?

Just not sure how to insure that the panels are identical in size and cover evenly without overlapping. I don't want to paint it...I'd rather do fondant.

Anyone have experience of ideas?? Thanks!

I haven't done it, but here's a link to a thread with some tips from each of the posters on how they've made fondant beach balls:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-637935-0-days0-orderasc-.html

I like the idea of cutting a few different colored balls into wedges...That sounds like a simple way of getting even colors without overlapping the fondant.

i make several different color balls. learned this in a british magazine.. cut then into fourths..and interchange colors to make the ball. . then put a little circle on top..hth

I just made one this week.

I took fondant in blue, white, yellow, orange and green and formed slivers sort of like a banana and then pulled them together at the top and bottom and it will form a ball. Make them thick so there won't be air inside.

It's easier than it sounds.

Good Luck!

I just made one. I used a giant jaw breaker (2.5 inches) - which I found at Michael's in their candy section by the registers. I used piping gel to adhere the fondant to it. I just eyeballed it and cut fondant pieces in strips with the middle being a little fatter. Then as I placed the colors next to each other I just butted them together and smoothed over the seems with my finger. I let them over lap some at the top and bottom then took the larger opening end of an icing tip and cut out the top circle (where the colors were overlapping) then used the same tip to cut out a circle of white fondant and placed that in the hole I just created! Perfect fit!!

Here is a pic of it finished....

Thanks so much! I experimented a little last night without much success (haha), but I think my fondant was too thin as it was difficult to work with. Bturpin, I was using your method. I think part of the problem is that I have to make it so small to be in proportion to the rest of the cake--less than an inch in diameter.

I'm going to try again tonight using thicker fondant. I'm also going to get some NEW EXACTO BLADES so my fondant won't tear/stretch when I cut it!

Thanks again...I will get this done LOL!

Sharon Zambito I believe has a template.

OK, they're done, and not so bad for a first attempt, if I do say so myself! I made that much harder than it had to be. I found the trick was to work with thicker pieces of fondant...the thinner it is, the more it tears, and the less I could push it into place. Thanks so much for the tips!

Oh man, I just posted a pool cake with beach balls, mine were a pain in the neck to make.