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.
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
