For a small gathering or a big crowd, a football cake scores big during the season. There are many options for baking and for decorating to help make the cake as important to the celebration as the game itself.
Supplies you’ll need:
Cake mix (recipe following)
Frosting (recipe following)
Pan or pans
Food coloring
Decorating tools: bags, couplers, tips (minimum of one round writing tip and one flat tip, although more tips will provide more options)
Use purchased cake mix or this recipe from Wilton Cakes (see References):
“Basic Yellow Cake (Reference 1)
Use this simple recipe to create a Basic Yellow Cake. This cake can be used in any cake, cupcake, loaf, or specialty pan. It provides a nice canvas for decorating and can be filled with your favorite filling.
Ingredients:
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups milk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom of and line with waxed paper or parchment paper. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Cream sugar and butter together until light. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating one minute. Spread batter evenly in prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Fill and frost as desired. ”
One recipe fills two 8″ round pans or one 9″X13″ oblong pan and serves about 12, about the same as a box of cake mix.
Choose the layout that best suits your needs and multiply the number of pans by the number to be served. Each selection takes one recipe of cake batter or one box of cake mix.
Either:
One football shaped novelty pan
Or
One 8″ round pan and one 8″ square pan (makes a 16″ long by 8″ wide cake)
Or
One 9″round pan and one 9″ square pan (makes an 18″ long by 9″ wide cake)
Or
Two loaf pans
Bake and cool according to recipe directions
Assembly: round and square pans
Prepare the serving surface. A large cutting board or several layers of corrugated cardboard covered in aluminum foil work well if you don’t have a cake board to fit.
Center the square cake on the serving surface. Cut the round cake into two half circles and place them on either side of the square cake, cut edge against the side of the square cake. If you’d like extra frosting, frost the sides of the square cake prior to placing the round one.
Trim the rounded edges of the half circles to more of a point. The trimmings can be used to fill in any low spots or breaks in the layers. Brush any crumbs off of the cake and serving surface.
Assembly: loaf pans
Prepare the serving surface-a large plate or serving platter will work. Level one of the loaf pan layers, if necessary. Frost the top this cake. Place the second layer on the lower layer.
Trim the corners into a football shape. Brush any crumbs off of the cake and serving surface.
Decorating:
Use purchased frosting mix, fondant or this recipe from Wilton Industries.
“Buttercream Icing (Reference 2)
Our Buttercream Icing recipe is perfect for spreading or decorating. Follow our instructions to make it the ideal consistency you need.
Source: 2003 Yearbook
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons milk
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.
Instructions
(Medium Consistency)
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.
For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.
For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.
NOTE: Changes in Wilton’s traditional recipes have been made due to Trans Fat Free Shortening replacing Hydrogenated Shortening.”
Set aside about a cup of the icing for decorating. Tint the rest brown. If brown food coloring is unavailable, create your own by adding a little of the four basic colors until you achieve the desired color.
Another option is to use chocolate frosting for the ball. Add approximately ½ cup cocoa to the remaining buttercream frosting and mix well. Add a little more milk if necessary to get the proper spreading consistency.
Frost the cake in brown. Prepare a decorating tube with coupler and flat tip (a number 46 tip held upside down was used in the photos). Fill with white icing.
At each end of the football, place the broad white stripes. (I used overlapping stripes in the photos to achieve the desired width, then smoothing them together with a small spreader tool.)
Place the stitching: first one long horizontal line, then a set of smaller lines crossing it perpendicularly.
Add a few drops of blue food coloring to a little of the brown icing to get a darker color for the seams. Using a number 2 or 4 round decorating tip, pipe the seam lines.
Finish the basic decorating with a shell trim where the cake meets the board. Use brown for a less noticeable edge or white for a flashier look.
Now comes the fun! Tint the remaining white frosting as desired for adding a message. Use team colors to make the cake even more special.
Note: The entire cake can be decorated with a star tip, if preferred.
Supersize it for a crowd
To make a larger cake for a crowd, add a second layer to the round-and-square combination.
Need even more? Bake two 9″ X 13″ layers. Place them side-by-side to create a 13″ X 18″ layer. Frost it green and add white lines as yard markers. Center the football cake on the “field” before decorating.
References:
Wilton Industries: First and Ten Football Pan http://www.wilton.com/shapedpan/First-and-Ten-Football-Pan
Wilton Industries: Basic Yellow Cake http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Basic-Yellow-Cake
Wilton Industries: Buttercream Icing http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Buttercream-Icing
Reference:
- Cake Pan Size Conversion Table: allrecipes.com/HowTo/Cake-Pan-Size-Conversions/Detail.aspx
