Has anyone ever covered a sports ball in fondant? Was hard to do? Did it smooth out ok? I have to do a basketball next week. Thanks

Here are some instructions and pics on how to do this...

http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/cakes/shelob/shelob.html

First, bake the cake in the Wilton Sports Ball pan. Cool completely. Level off each half.

Take a small piece of sugarpaste and roll it out to about palm-size. Take half of the cake gently in one hand, round side up, and spread a layer of buttercream on the top of the dome. Turn this half upside and position it roughly in the middle of the palm-sized bit of sugarpaste on top of a clean cutting board. Put more buttercream on the curve, then bring up the edges of that sugarpaste to more or less smoothly cover the bottom of this half. This is done because I have found it nearly impossible to smoothly surround an entire ball with sugarpaste.

Continue spreading buttercream on the lower half, including a generous layer in the middle. Put the upper half on, spread buttercream all over. Leave to sit for a few minutes, just long enough for the buttercream to firm up a bit.

Meanwhile, roll out your sugarpaste on whatever you usually use (I like to use a pastry cloth on top of my silicone mat). Bring the cutting board with the cake over and apply the rolled-out sugarpaste. Proceed as gently as possible to cover the cake as far down as you can without incurring folds. Wherever the sugarpaste wants to fold, stretch it out to lay flat. This will cause a fold nearby, so work your way around slowly to manipulate it as smoothly as you can as far down as you can, overlapping the bit you've already put on.

Affix the main layer to the base layer with a bit of water. Smooth the whole ball. I didn't use cake smoothers because I find them fairly useless on a sphere.

Let the cake sit for awhile until it is firm enough to pick up gently in two hands.
http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/cakes/shelob/th_shelob20-spider.jpg
http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/cakes/shelob/th_shelob21-spider.jpg
http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/cakes/shelob/th_shelob22-spider.jpg

Sounds complicated maybe i will just do stars. Thanks for taking the time to help!

It's really not that hard to cover the ball cake in fondant. You just need to go a bit slower to avoid the pleats. You use the same method that you would for any cake...place over your cake, smooth the top, and then slowly work you way down the sides. As you go down the sides gently lift the fondant and then cup it down(like you were fluffing a wedding dress). Work your way around and down the sides of the cake. You can do it!