Soccer Ball Fail

Decorating By krm52200 Updated 20 Nov 2014 , 9:08pm by ladyonzlake

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krm52200 Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 4:04pm
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This weekend I attempted to make a 3d soccer ball cake using the wilton ball pan. It was red velvet cake and I did torte each half and fill with a cookie dough mousse (which was pretty stiff). When I put the top half on the bottom half, it completely crushed the bottom half of the sphere.

So to those who have successfully made the 3d ball cakes, what's the secret? Should I not have torted and filled? Maybe the cake was just too soft?

Thanks for any input.

KRM

25 replies
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tastyart Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 4:19pm
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I think making perfect spheres is a difficult thing to do. I've never made one, but I would think that a pretty sturdy cake is a must. Hope to hear from those of you out there that have done it.

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kimblyd Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 4:32pm
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So sorry that happened to you! I was afraid of the same thing...so when I made my ball cake with the same pan, I made half with cake half with RKT.

I made the bottom part out of RKT (just pressed into 1/2 of the pan, removed, let harden), covered with candy clay, and used that as my "base". Then I iced the other half, covered with candy clay, and placed that on top. (It's the Pokemon cake in my pics.)

The cake I used was a DH lemon cake with lemon curd filling, not the sturdiest, but it held up just fine.

HTH.

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CakeMixCakery Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 4:33pm
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I have made the ball cake, but i have only done it with rice krispie treats... good luck with the cake

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arosstx Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 4:48pm
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I've done several, and I only put filling between the two half balls of cake. I think stability is effected when you have three layers of filling.

Something else I do is cut some of the bottom of the ball, so it's not a perfect round. That way there is a larger flat surface that allows you to move/ice/decorate/place the cake wherever.

Probably the biggest thing that helps is refrigeration. Once I fill the two halves, I crumb coat it and chill it for at least 30 minutes to firm it up. Then ice, chill. Decorate, chill. It keeps it firm in my opinion.

Hope it gets better for you. I had a huge cake fail this weekend as well, huge. Luckily, the recipient will never know as it was rebaked and redone in time to be "perfect" upon delivery. And I use that term lightly, as I know how hard we all judge ourselves!

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emrldsky Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 5:02pm
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I've done the ball once, and had no problems. I did the same as arosstx, where I cut the rounded edge off the bottom so it would lay flatter. I didn't refrigerate though. I think when you torted the layers, it might have made it a bit unstable. icon_sad.gif

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BlakesCakes Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 5:17pm
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I've done the ball pan several times. I make it using the WASC recipe. I definitely don't torte and fill. I just stick the 2 pieces together with buttercream.

I take off a small amount from the bottom so that it sits level and stable. If it's not level--so that the mid-line is true horizonal--it will have issues.

I refrigerate before applying my icing because I find that it helps keep the cake from deforming.

HTH
Rae

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krm52200 Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 6:20pm
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thanks for all your replies. I think the torting was what did me in. I did level the bottom piece so that it would sit flat and I did try to chill it to get it to harden up. Luckily for me the client only asked for a soccer themed cake and didn't really care what I did. So I was still able to make a 2d soccer ball with the top half and the whole thing was going to be sitting on an 8" square decorated like grass so there were still plenty of servings. They were thrilled when they saw it so thats all that matters icon_smile.gif

Next time I will skip the torting and just sandwich to the two halves together and see if that goes better.

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CakeDiosa Posted 1 Jun 2010 , 6:53pm
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Red velvet is really soft too. So consider that even if you refrig it to hold its shape while decorating it may very well deform as it starts to come to room temp. I had a ball pan failure. It was supposed to be a soccer ball but morphed into a hamburger shape so I just made it a vase (it was for a friend and a flexible cake design - thank goodness!). But from that I learned that I will only use pound cake when I need shapes to hold in cake. I had used a dense recipe chocolate cake and it didn't hold the shape. So, if that shape is required I advise the client that the cake in that shape will only be made of pound cake and buttercream. Enough 3D failures and you become fine with insisting on using a medium that will actually work.

Learned from experience...hope it helps!

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pursuing_perfection Posted 3 Jun 2010 , 2:20pm
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I am making a soccer ball cake for a customer this weekend. Hopefully reading all this will help me to pull it off! Thanks for sharing your "learning experiences".

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liha21 Posted 3 Jun 2010 , 2:37pm
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I have a picture of my soccer ball disaster! I learned I will never do a 3d cake in chocolate, or red velvet. But I've also read somewhere that you can make the bottom half with styrofoam, and that will support the top half. But like said on here, the rkt sounds like a winner too.

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tastyart Posted 3 Jun 2010 , 6:53pm
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I'm good with making 3D cakes in chocolate but I don't get a long with red velvet.

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pursuing_perfection Posted 3 Jun 2010 , 10:56pm
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I have used the "Darn Good Chocolate Cake" recipe from this site to make 3-D cakes, and I have not had any problems. Perhaps the sports ball is more difficult than a typical 3-D cake. I will find out soon!

Having said that, I usually insert a dowel for extra stability, so maybe that is the key to my success.

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pursuing_perfection Posted 4 Jun 2010 , 7:29pm
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Okay...the soccer ball cake is made. I finished just before 3am!!! I cut a little off the bottom as suggested, but shouldn't have - at least not for a real cake. The top half of the ball would have weighed it down enough that it wouldn't have been tippy (especially with the dowel added for extra stability). Maybe you need to trim the bottom when using RKT.

I covered the ball with fondant cutouts, using the Wilton templates. By the time I got to the back, I was rolling the templates to make them slightly bigger in order to cover. I guess the templates work when outlining for buttercream, but when you have put a thin coat of buttercream for the fondant to stick to, it increases the circumference of the ball. Next time I will try doing all the templates 1/8 or 1/4 inch bigger. Perhaps that will do it. Still, the cake looks not bad from the front.

I have not stacked the cake yet, as the venue is approxiamtely 1 1/2 hours away and want to minimize the chances of a transportation disaster! I will post a picture in the next couple of days.

Thank you to those who shared their experience here. Hopefully my "learning experience" will help someone else. icon_smile.gif

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pursuing_perfection Posted 12 Jun 2010 , 4:12am
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Well, the cake made it to the venue and survived the trip! Turns out I could have left the cake round, and might have even been able to torte it. Cutting off the bottom slightly made it look a little squashed. (Check my pics). The "Darn Good Chocolate Cake recipe" passed the test on the sports ball.

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ladyonzlake Posted 31 Jul 2014 , 1:10am
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I know this is years later but it may help someone else.  I have made the soccer ball cake and torted and fill.  I place a cake board in the center and dowel for support.  I also cut the bottom so that it sits flat.  I only fill it with buttercream...no preserves.  I hope this helps.

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Carabella Posted 6 Oct 2014 , 5:50am
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AHi, the cake looks amazing! Can I ask a question? When you say that you used a dowel, do you mean that you glued a dowel into the cake board and then pushed the cake onto it? I have one to make on the weekend and I've never done one before! Thank you : )

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petitecat Posted 6 Oct 2014 , 11:06am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carabella 

Hi, the cake looks amazing! Can I ask a question? When you say that you used a dowel, do you mean that you glued a dowel into the cake board and then pushed the cake onto it? I have one to make on the weekend and I've never done one before! Thank you : )

Hi Carabella, I have done a sphere cake before and used straws as dowels to support the top half. I used a cake card on top of the straws, then placed the top half of the cake on the card. Here is the cake after it was cut, you can just see the card card in the photo:

 

 

You could glue a dowel onto a cake board for added peace of mind, though. I probably would do that if I made a similar cake for a customer.

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Carabella Posted 6 Oct 2014 , 1:22pm
post #19 of 26

AThank you so much for the picture Petitecat! It's super helpful! I'm not going to torte my cake, I'm just putting the two halves together with ganache and covering it with ganache and then fondant. ( it's a soccer cake ) would I still need the card and straws? I've never glued a dowel to a board as I usually set up when I'm there. Will it tear it apart when there is movement from the car??? Or will it be okay glued down with royal icing? Thank you :)

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petitecat Posted 6 Oct 2014 , 2:01pm
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Carabella, I would recommend the card and dowels/straws because cake can be heavy even if you don't torte and because of the shape of this cake, there isn't a lot of support from the bottom half. Also the addition of fondant will increase the weight bearing down on the cake. The cake I showed you has no fondant, it's all cake and ganache.

 

My husband drove while I held the box with the cake in it. I 'nursed' the box, lifting it up if we went over bumps/holes in the road. I instructed hubby to drive VERY slowly too. I think you might just get away with RI so long as you drove carefully!

 

Just to let you know I've only ever done the one sphere cake, the rest have been half spheres and I'm very nervous about delivering cakes so I like the added reassurance whenever I'm delivering cakes myself. Perhaps someone who's done more sphere cakes than I have will step in now and say whether a central dowel is a necessity or not x

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mattyeatscakes Posted 6 Oct 2014 , 6:10pm
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A

Original message sent by petitecat

Hi Carabella, I have done a sphere cake before and used straws as dowels to support the top half. I used a cake card on top of the straws, then placed the top half of the cake on the card. Here is the cake after it was cut, you can just see the card card in the photo:

[URL=http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3292095/] [/URL]

You could glue a dowel onto a cake board for added peace of mind, though. I probably would do that if I made a similar cake for a customer.

Hi there! I am also making a ball cake (basketball) and covering it with fondant. And i need all the help i can get :) Did you use the wilton ball pan? And added dowels to the bottom half and a cake board in between for support? Thanks for the advices! :)

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petitecat Posted 6 Oct 2014 , 8:23pm
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A

Original message sent by mattyeatscakes

Hi there! I am also making a ball cake (basketball) and covering it with fondant. And i need all the help i can get :) Did you use the wilton ball pan? And added dowels to the bottom half and a cake board in between for support? Thanks for the advices! :)

I bought these pans, as I live in the UK: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/p16778/Hemisphere-Cake-Pans

Yes I dowelled with straws and a cake board in the middle :)

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mattyeatscakes Posted 7 Oct 2014 , 3:40am
post #23 of 26

AAwesome! Thanks petitecat! :)

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charleezgal Posted 20 Nov 2014 , 8:00pm
post #24 of 26

I know this is an old post, but I hope you can still answer a little question. I'm needing to stack the basketball cake (made from the Wilton sportsball pan) and I was wondering if I need cardboard under it, or can it sit directly on top of the cake? Also, do I need to dowel through all the ball cake with the round cake below it or should I put dowels in the cake below?

 

Thanks a bunch.

Teresa

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charleezgal Posted 20 Nov 2014 , 8:03pm
post #25 of 26

How do you stack your soccer ball cakes onto another cake? Do you use support dowels under it, or just use one long dowel to go through ball cake and cake below? Do you always put the ball cake on a small piece of cardboard?

 

Thanks

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ladyonzlake Posted 20 Nov 2014 , 9:08pm
post #26 of 26


Yes, you will need a board under your ball.  You'll need dowels in your cake to support your ball and you will need to do a center dowel through the ball and the cake.  Hope that helps.

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