Play Ball!

Baseball. Seems like an easy enough cake decoration, right? But do you make the cake a 3D baseball? sheet cake with a baseball diamond, small bat and ball? mitt with ball? cake shaped like a mitt? or a bat? round cake decorated like a baseball? When I said "sure, I can make a cake for your son's 7th birthday," I had no idea these questions would quickly race through my mind.

What we decided on was a double stacked chocolate cake, filled with cookies & cream buttercream, frosted with white buttercream and decorated like a baseball. Because the cake needed to serve 30+, I started with a double batch of chocolate cake. I ended up using 3/4 of one batch per each 10-inch round. This left just enough batter for one dozen cupcakes.

After covering a 12-inch cardboard round in foil, I placed a little frosting in the middle of the round and inverted one cake onto the board.

Because I was going to frost the outside with white buttercream but fill with cookies & cream buttercream, I piped a ring of buttercream around the edge.

Then I filled in the cookies & cream buttercream. To make the cookies & cream buttercream, I used....yep. That's right. Oreo cookies and buttercream. Crazy, I know. I love food processors for crushing cookies.

You take cookies like so:

Press a little button, and 10 seconds later, voila! Crushed cookies! Amazing! These aren't super fine. When I frost a cake with cookies & cream, I pulse the cookies until they're very fine. Since this was a filling, chunkier was better. Just stir the cookies into the buttercream.

Next I placed the second cake on top and frosted with white buttercream.

The red stitching was a little more difficult. I wanted it really red, so I used food coloring gel (Wilton's red no taste). I ended up using almost a whole container, but colored way more frosting than I needed. I piped it on with a round tip.

I wanted to pipe some grass around the edges rather than pipe a border, but I didn't have a grass tip. So, this is what I ended up with.

I piped on "Happy Birthday ____. " It turned out OK, but I think would have been better if I'd carved the top of the cake or placed the top layer upside down with the rounded part on top. Eh. Maybe next time.