I have someone that has asked me to make a cake that looks like a ball of yarn & they want buttercream icing, not fondant. I was wondering if anyone would have any ideas/tips on how I can do this. I have the wilton ball pan, so I was going to bake the cake using that, but I don't know how I can make the icing to look like yarn (especially getting underneath the bottom side of the cake.) They also wanted 2 knitting needles laying in front of it. Any ideas on how to make those? If anyone has any pictures of a cake similar to this I would love to see those too. Thanks!

Sry, I don't have any pics, but I would try and use a #3 or #5 tip and just pipe "strings" on the ball. Use a kinda criss-cross pattern. Maybe rest the ball on the stand that comes with the pans and start the "strings" from the bottom up. Transfer to what you are going to present it on with a spatula or something like that.

Knitting needles...have to think on that one. Could they be chocolate clay??

Yeah, that's what I would do. Probably a tip 5 would work. Play with your round tips to see which one gives you the best "yarn" look. And then post a picture for us to ooogle at!!

Go under "Galleries" and do a search for "yarn". It will pull up several cake pictures, most of which are fondant, but a few of which are buttercream. It should at least help you decide how to approach it.

I did a yarn cake on my website in the whimsical gallery. You could use a yip 7 or 8 amd pipe the yarn on. You will have to place it on a small round so you can elevate it to pipe from the bottom.

Thanks for all the ideas! I never thought about elevating it to pipe on the bottom. I'm making it tomorrow & I'll take a picture when I'm finished. If I can get the picture to upload (been having trouble getting that to work for a couple of weeks), I'll have it posted sometime tomorrow night.

I did Debbie Brown's kitten on a ball of yarn using buttercream, I used tip 4 or 5 and basically followed the fondant instructions (it's in my photos) - good luck!