Hi all! Sorry for posting this question, but I am a newbie here and need some kind of direction. Your help is greatly appreciated. I would like to make a basketball cake for my son. Please see the basketball cake photo that I have posted (this cake is someone else's work, and she does not post the instructions on her site). What I really need to know is how she was able to get the letters and logo exactly how the original was. Is this something done by tracing and then cutting with an Xacto knife? Thank you for your help on this.

Very likely done by tracing and an xacto knoife . That's how I would do it, and how I've done it for other things I've neded out of fondant.

Or the person had a cricut or other cutting machine and was able to get the image put through and cut that way.

Thank you!

Hi,
I just did this same cake last weekend and yes, everything was cut by hand using images printed on paper. You actually have to "double cut" to get the white underneath the black with some of the letters. In other words, print the image with the white background, trace/cut, then cut off the white part from the paper and then trace/cut again, then overlay the black on the white. Very time consuming.

If you are doing the basketball in 3D as is in the picture, just want to caution you that it was pretty difficult to cover from the top. The fondant was just so heavy on the bottom and kept taring. I think in hind sight I should have covered it from the front and around and then dealt with smoothing out the seam in the back.

Good luck,
Allie

Thanks Allie! I appreciate you explaining this process to me. That helps a lot! I will try that. Do you have any pics of the basketball cake you made?

When you apply the fondant, make sure your buttercream underneath hasn't crusted. it sticks to the frosting and is less likely to tear. (or spritz it w/ water before applying the fondant.

I have used the paper cut out approach before. If you are using a color other than black you can use a light box and use your xacto to "trace" it.