So, if you remember from my last blog entry, I need to make a volleyball cake in 3 weeks' time. All I can say is that I'm glad I did a trial run first.
To start with, the oven at our new rental isn't great. The cake took a lot longer to cook, and when I cut the top off, the centre looked uncooked (even though the skewer came out clean when I tested it). Needless to say, I'll be cooking the cake again to see if I can sort it out. Otherwise I might be needing to borrow an oven for a few hours.
I cheated and used Wilton's Sports Ball Pan so that the cake would be round to start with. But I found it really difficult to continue with the shape. Adding the buttercream layer meant that the side went a bit wonky, which was exacerbated as I added the layers of fondant. So my volleyball ended up looking a little deflated. When I make the real one, I will have to make sure that each layer follows the shape of the cake.
My friend Vic, who is a superstar cake decorator, suggested that I cover the whole thing with a layer of fondant first, and then add a second layer to make the coloured pattern. I think that this made it a lot easier. I was pretty happy with my attempt at the pattern - the Wilton tin comes with a template of the regular volleyball pattern, but as the birthday girl plays with a particular patterned ball, I thought that I would have a go. The real one will be different colours, but at least I now have a template.
The last thing to try was the writing on the ball - I think that the brand name turned out ok, but that might be the extent of the patterns. Drawing really isn't my strong point.
So, although my volleyball looks a little flat and dented, I think it's a good starting point. Fingers crossed that the real one is better!
