Volleyball Court Cake

2017 was my niece's last year on her high school volleyball team.  Go Lady Panthers!  She was the Libero all four years, and was awarded Defensive Player of the Year in her final year!  Go, Amanda!!

For her last Volleyball Banquet I decided to make her a special cake.
 

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The most involved part of the cake was the volleyball itself.  I used the Wilton 3D Cake Pan and the included pattern to make the volleyball markings.  I first covered the cake with black Fondarific fondant. (The Fondarific is very pliable and it stays soft for a long time so it worked well on this 3D shape).  Then I cut out the blue sections and placed them on the round cake.
 

Then I placed the white strips.  The flat pattern didn't exactly fit the 3D shape, so I had to do some trimming of the white pieces.  I also wanted gaps between the white and blue pieces so the black fondant underneath would show.

Next came the main cake.  I used the Wilton 1/2 sheet cake pan, and made one side yellow and the other side chocolate.

Turning a slab of cake into a volleyball court was the fun (and easy) part.  I started with yellow Mona Lisa fondant, added some dabs of brown, and then twisted it in one direction to give the fondant a streaked look.

Here is the streaked fondant all rolled out.  At this point it is really starting to look like wood.  I guess I could have used it just like this, but I wanted to try out my new wood grain impression mat.

Just press the silicone mat into the fondant...

And lift off the mat to get that wood grain pattern.  Pretty cool, huh?!

Next I cut the fondant into strips.  I decided to use strips instead of one big piece of fondant because it was easier.  I didn't want to struggle with a huge 22 x 28" piece of fondant so I just made small 1-1/2 x 9" strips.  Easy, easy, easy.

The strips of fondant were just positioned on the cake.  I was finished in just 30 minutes, and no stress, panic, or hair pulling from trying to place and smooth a monster piece of fondant.

I made markings to represent the lines of the volleyball court...

And then came the net.  This was the most frustrating part of the cake.  My fondant extruder broke, so I had to roll all the string by hand.  What a PITB.

For the lettering on the volleyball I used some FMM Funky Cutters in Uppercase and Lowercase.   I wanted to put the word "volleyball" on the ball itself, but it won't fit, so I put it on the top of the net.

For the final assembly I simply placed the volleyball on the main cake (secured with some wooden skewers), added two Lineman Flags for a pop of color, and Ta-Da, I was finished.

All-in-all it was a pretty easy cake to make. 

Happy Decorating,

Carol