I am making a spherical 3D football cake. it is only going to be a 6inch diameter sphere as i haven't got a bowl or tin for anything bigger (and a 6 inch sphere gives a deceptively large amount of cake!)

I'm going to place this ball on top of a small round cake (no more than 1-2 inches high) but i wonder how to keep it from rolling off! im contemplating sticking a dowel through the middle of the ball. i have never used dowels before and have a few questions!

1) is a dowel needed or would lots of buttercream do the job and cement the ball on top?!

2) if it do use a dowel would i need to attach it to the cake board somehow? (the cake is just a victoria sponge cake so is not very dense and supportive!)

3) if i do need to attach it to the board how would i do it?! (cut a whole and thread it through or just glue it down?)

I'm sorry if these are very basic questions for some of you pros but i have no experience of this!

Thanks

If your base board is thick enough (several layers of corrugated cardboard or a cake drum), you can just hammer the center dowel into the base board.

stick a small wooden dowel down the centre and this will keep the ball from rolling off.That's all you need..

Ok get it. Football=soccer (I seemed to have forgotten that because I was thinking...well a football would lie flat on the cake so what's the big deal. LOL. Then I saw you were from England so it all became clear. Sorry.).

Here is what I would do:

1. Dowel your sponge using either wooden dowels or large drinking straws (like for bubble tea). You should only need two or three, depending on the size of the ball going on top.
2. Cut a board to fit under the ball. This can easily be covered with buttercream.
3. Put the ball with the board under it on top of the dowels in your sponge.
4. Get a wooden dowel and sharpen the end. Stab it (it's fun to use violence when decorating) through the ball, board, and sponge. You can push harder to get it through your cake base if necessary.

Good luck!