This is for my 8 year old sons baseball team and their families. I am hoping to work into the cake that they are "wood bat" champs. They had such a great season and I would love to give them a fabulous cake - unfortunately my brain has froze up ! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anyone there?

I'm not too great with suggesting, but I'll give it a shot.

Perhaps a circular cake with white icing and red stitching like a baseball? A bit original, sorry. D=

Perhaps you could do a bat to accompany it, and etch the words along the bat? It could be strategically placed beneath the bat, perhaps. Or just a bat cake, with baseball cupcakes?

I'm unoriginal right now, so sorry.

Thank you for trying. I can unfortunately only think of original stuff right now....I'm trying to get the that WOW! stage - it just isn't coming to me right now. Thanks again!

Sorry I couldn't be more help. =(

Perhaps a baseball cap?

That's where my ideas end.

You know how if you line bats up alternating which end is the fat side.... how they fit together. Maybe you could make a rectangle cake and carve it to look like 4 or 5 bats lined up that way.....

Here is what I mean (in bats) you'll have to just picture it as cake!



image url: http://home.flash.net/~falline/images/bats.jpg

Thank you very much - I like it. I am trying to figure out how I would do the writing - the teams name is Devil Rays. Do you have any suggestions on how to do the wood grain look? This is different - I really like it...thanks a lot!!

I think you could handpaint the woodgrain on some tan fondant and wrap your "bats" you could even do just one big one with a mitt and a ball and write 'WOOD BAT CHAMPS' on the bat with an edible ink pen (Michaels has them).

I can't wait to see your final design...should be fun

Thanks. I don't know how little kids would like fondant - unless I tried to make it really thin. I hadn't thought of using edible ink pens...I actually have those on hand. Yeah me!! Thanks for your ideas......I really appreciate them.

Maybe you can make a large round cake and make mini wooden bats to be placed vertically all around the border of the cake. Maybe even alternate 1 bat 1 ball. Similar to cigarillos. Then you can make some sort of plaque or trophy on top with the teams name and 2008 Champions or something. You can even top the cake using a grass tip and make a field.

HTH, good Luck!

I'm not sure how comfortable you are with carving, but here is an idea... here is a cake I did for a little league team last year: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=602053

What if you did the baseball bats as the bottom layer, then a baseball cap sitting on top in their team logo?

This cake is in my Favorites, created my CCer mamacc.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1009453.html

You could change for the team's color and add some bats.

I also would do fondant. My experience with kids and fondant is ..... of course they eat it - its sugar..... My daughters class even loved the crayons I made last year for them out of Wilton Fondant! Gasp!!! Most kids don't know what it is and that they shouldn't like it (preconceived notions)! I do however not recommend using the wilton cause you said adults would be eating it.

It is so easy to marble the fondant to look like wood--really the easiest way.

GL

i too like the idea of bats (i normally dont care for sheet cakes) carved out of a sheet cake, covered in marbled fondant to get the wood grain look. on top of that i'd add a baseball cap in the teams colors and with the logo, but not centered, kind of offset like it was tossed on top. perhaps a baseball nearby that has the teams autographs scribbled all over it with an edible marker. have you seen the cap in elisa strauss' book ,confetti cakes? its really cool, and the instructions are simple.

as far as kids and fondant, i have never had a kid pick it off and complain that i can think of. i use satin ice and i personally think it tastes and smells great. i'd completely stear clear of wilton though, that stuff is just plain gross.

if you're interested, www.satinfinefoods.com for info on the brand, and www.intotheoven.com for a great, inexpensive and fast place to buy it.

Thank you everyone for your ideas.........I cannot tell you how much you have helped me.



Marthajo1 if you could tell me how to marble the fondant I would really appreciate it. I make the MMF but I add my color right after I melt the mm - I have never marbled fondant but I would love to know how.

Again thank you everyone for the help with ideas.....I really appreciate it!

marbling is simple. you roll out ropes of different colored fondant, then twist roll them together, fold in half, re twist & roll, then when you get the grain you are going for, roll it out with the rolling pin. the grain will widen a little as it flattens.

another way to do woodgrain is to paint it on. start with white, off white, or light light brown fondant. use a mixture of brown color and vanilla, or preferably an alcohol like vodka (it evaporates faster). paint it on with a brush, and go over areas more than once and it will get streaky like woodgrain.

these cakes were both done with the painting method http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1210360
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1161179 the first one, i made marks with a pizza cutter before i painted it. the texture is nice.

I have been having a lot of trouble getting posts to go today sorry! The last post took me all morning to get it to go! I love to do the way Melysa said with the ropes. Ateco has a great tute on it.

http://atecousa.net/learn/satin-ice-tutorial-iii-marblizing.html

Make your own fondant, there is a recipe here that is Marshmallow fondant....basically marshmallows melted with flavorings and p. sugar. I put extra flavorings and roll it pretty thin.

I just think with all the detail work on the bat, making a bunch of them is rather challenging. One or a few around the sides should be doable.

PS. I just read someone speaking of the cream cheese fondant recipe on the site. I haven't tried it though. Store-bought fondant is really gross tasting. so make your own.

Back to fondant....Its easier to color it when you are making it. So add your tan to the liquids while making it. I also have seen a marbling technique. Let me try to explain. You take a large roll of tan and a thin roll of chocolate (add choc to the tan), then you twist them together, then fold in half, twist together again, then roll out and it gives you a marbled effect. If you use tan a brown, it may look like the bat's wood grain. Its an idea. Maybe you can search the words marble fondant and see what I am trying to describe.

Good luck.

Thanks sooo much guys. Your ideas are awesome!

Has anyone made regular size looking baseballs? I have the big ball pan but it is entirely too large.......is there a simple way to make a regular baseball? Or would it be easier to make a cluster of say 2 or 3 - carving that out of a round cake? Which do you think?

Thanks again guys!

I made a baseball cake and cupcake (in my pics) using Wilton's ball pan and while it is quite big for a baseball, it is still pretty realistic-looking... You may have better luck size-wise with cupcakes, iced all around to look like a 3D ball (Iâm sure kids would love the extra icing)... or just ice the tops like baseballs?

I just did cakes for my sons baseball team and they loved them. I didn't do any bats, but you could do a baseball on a sheet cake and then maybe do a bat either out of cake covered in MMF or out of RKT covered in MMF. I did a baseball and the team logo on a sheet cake and covered the top w/"grass". I also did the teams hat and jersey. HTH

Thanks for the ideas Allee. Could you tell me how hard it is to do the ball cap? What size pans did you use?

The cap wasn't all that hard. I used one half of the wilton ball pan and put that on top of a 6" round. Then I just carved a couple of places in it to make it more realistic, covered w/MMF and did the detailing. The bill was out of gumpaste/MMF, but the 1st one that I made broke and the 2nd didn't have time to dry so I made another 6" round and carved it to hold up the bill. HTH

I;ve got a basball one in my photos.....
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=681833

I used the small ball pan and put two of them together for the ball in the glove.....

I didn't read all the posts so someone else maybe already came up with the idea....but I would make a cake to copy their jersey and then you could put a 3D bat across the jersey stating whatever you wanted and you could even put a 3D hat on it if you really wanted the WOW factor. I think the jersey and the bat would look cute, and kids always like anything that is copied that is something of theirs....hope this helps good luck, I am sure it will be adorable and they will love it...kids are usually easy to please