FOOTBALL CAKE IDEAS RECIPES

Steps:

• Heat the oven to180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and base line a 20cm round cake tin with baking parchment. To make the chocolate cake, put the butter into a bowl and beat until soft. Add all the remaining ingredients and beat well until light and creamy. Spoon into the tin and spread level. Bake in the oven for about 45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool. When cold, slice the top off the cake to make it level.
• To make the mint cake, grease and base line your 20cm cake tin with baking parchment. Put the butter into a bowl and beat until soft. Add the remaining ingredients and beat well until light and creamy. Spoon into the tin and spread level. Bake in the oven for about 45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool. Do not slice the top level as it needs to be rounded.
• To make the butter icing, put the butter into a bowl and beat until soft. Gradually beat in the icing sugar. Slice the chocolate and mint cakes in half horizontally so you have four layers. Using an 8cm round cutter, stamp a circle from the centre of each layer. Place the bottom layer of chocolate cake on a 25cm cake board. Spread with a little butter icing. Place the bottom green layer on top. Spread with butter icing and place the other chocolate layer on top. Spread with more icing and place the rounded green sponge on top.
• Fill the centre hole with sweets, almost to the top. Take one of the 8cm green sponge pieces and slice in half horizontally. Place one piece on the cake to cover the hole containing the sweets. Spread the top with the remaining butter icing. Roll out about 300g of the white fondant icing to a 20cm circle and place on top of the cake.
• Brush the sides of the cake with apricot jam. Measure the circumference of the cake and the depth. Add 2.5cm to the depth measurement. Using these measurements roll out the green fondant to a long strip. (You may find it easier to do two shorter strips). Attach the strip around the cake. Use scissors snip around the top edge to represent grass.
• Make a cardboard template of a pentagon (5 sides). Roll out the black icing and cut out six pentagons. Place them on the cake as for a football. If you wish to stick them in place use a little icing sugar mixed with water.
• With the remaining white icing trimmings make a scarf and paint with food colouring in your team colours. Drape the scarf over the edge of the cake. Add candles as desired.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line the bottom of three 8-inch cake pans and one 6-inch cake pan with parchment paper and spray the bottom and sides with cooking spray.
• Pour both packages of cake mix into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add milk, melted butter, and eggs while mixing on low speed. Add vanilla extract and salt and increase speed to medium. Beat for 2 minutes. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 28 to 33 minutes. Note that the smaller cake may be done before the larger ones. Cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then turn out and cool completely on a wire baking rack for at least 30 minutes. Chill for an additional 30 minutes.
• While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream frosting. Beat butter on medium speed in an electric mixer until creamy. Add confectioners' sugar alternately with milk and beat until it reaches a spreadable consistency. Stir in vanilla extract.
• Scoop 1/2 of the frosting into a bowl and set aside. Scoop two-thirds into another bowl and dye with green food coloring to your desired shade of green. Stir the melted chocolate into the remaining frosting. You should have three bowls of frosting: white, green, and brown.
• Trim the tops of the cooled 8-inch cake layers until flat. Stack the cake layers on a 10-inch cake board, filling the middle with white buttercream. Apply a thin layer of white frosting to the sides for the crumb coat. Chill cake for another 30 minutes or until frosting is set.
• Frost the chilled cake with green buttercream. Tap the surface of the cake with the flat side of a spatula to create a grassy look.
• Lightly score a line down the center of the 6-inch cake. Make a cut 1/2 inch from either side of the center line and remove the middle section. Sandwich the two sides of the cake together using some of the chocolate buttercream, forming a football shape. Finish frosting the outside of the football cake with the chocolate buttercream. Place 'football' on top of the green 8-inch cake.
• Fill a piping bag fitted with a small round pastry tip with the remaining white buttercream. Pipe a 3-inch line in the center of the football cake. Pipe small lines over it to create lacing. Switch the pastry tip to a large round tip, and pipe a thick line on either side of the football cake about 2 inches from either end.