When we do think about birthday cake for a girl child the first thing that comes to your mind is a doll cakes. But I was a bit stuck on what to make for my son's birthday. I finally planned to make ball cake as he is fond of football quite a lot. And I had really thought of baking him one years back, so I felt, that this would be the best cake to make for his birthday. He went crazy after seeing the cake.

My 200th post was Doll Cake which would be an easy to make birthday cake for a girl kid. I was planning for a simple yet adorable cake for boys for my 400th post. Last month was my son's birthday and i had made this cake and also saved the post for my 400th.

I have prepared three chocolate cakes, soaked them in coffee syrup and sandwiched using whipped cream frosting. The cake was iced using whipped cream frosting for white and butter cream frosting for black colour.

Preparation Time: 10 + 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 25-30 +20 minutes
Serves - 15

INGREDIENTS:
Oil/ Butter- 1 cup (200 gms)
Sugar, powdered- 2 cups
Eggs, large- 4 (or) medium-5
*All purpose Flour/ Self raising flour-2½ cups
Cocoa powder- 3/4 cup
Baking powder-1 teaspoon
*Baking Soda- 1 teaspoon
Salt- pinch
Vanilla essence- 1 teaspoon
Hot Milk-1/2-1 cup
* Do not use baking soda if you are using Self raising flour.

For the coffee syrup:
Water- 1 cup
sugar- 3 tablespoons
instant coffee powder/espresso powder- 2 tablespoons

For the whipped cream frosting:
Whipping cream- 750 ml (3 cups)
Sugar, powdered/ Icing sugar- 3 tablespoons

For butter cream frosting:
Butter- 1/4 cup
Icing sugar-1 cup
Warm milk- 1 teaspoon
Vanilla essence- 1/2 teaspoon
Black food colour- as required

Soccer Ball Cake

PROCEDURE:

Chocolate cake:
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
  • Grease and flour the pan or else line the cake pan with wax paper. I have used 3 nos. of 18 cm cake pans to prepare this cake.
  • Sift/sieve the dry ingredients such as flour,cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt twice or thrice to evenly mix together.
  • In a deep bowl beet in the eggs an then add the oil and beat again till frothy.
  • Now add the vanilla essence and mix well.
  • Now add the sifted dry ingredients and fold well with a spatula which would be a thick batter.
  • Now add the boiling hot milk/ water, 1/4 cup at a time to loosen the batter till it becomes thin.
  • Pour the batter almost equally inside the prepared cake tins.
  • Flatten the surface and bake the cake for about 30 minutes or till the skewer inserted comes out clean.
  • Cool the cake for 10 minutes.
  • Run a knife around the edges and remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool thoroughly before icing.
Whipped cream frosting:
  • Pre-chill the container, whisk and the cream.
  • Whip the cream and add the sugar a tablespoon at a time once the cream starts to thicken.
  • Whip till you get stiff peaks.
  • Refrigerate till you use.
Butter cream frosting:
  • Cream the butter using electric beater. Add the powdered sugar  one tablespoon at a time and beat well. Stir in the vanilla essence.
  • Add cream or warm milk a teaspoon and the black food colour; whip well to get the creamy consistency.
  • Refrigerate till you use.
Assembling the cake:
  • Take the cake and cut the top to remove the puffed up portion using a serrated knife.
  • Prepare coffee syrup by boiling some water and add the sugar when it reaches boiling point add the espresso/instant coffee powder and switch off the gas. (You could do this in oven too) 
  • Brush or drizzle the warm coffee syrup over the sponge cake till it get absorbed. Do it twice.
  • Take a cake board and keep half a teaspoon of icing and keep the heaviest cake from the three as  a strong base.
  • Then top it with a big dollop of whipped cream and again top it with the second layer cake.  Slightly press the cake.
  • Again apply a big dollop of whipped cream and spread using the spatula. Keep the third cake over it and slightly press it.
  • Now carve the cake using a serrated knife to make a ball shape. Cut the top and the bottom cake in a slanting manner to achieve the shape.
  • Then brush to remove the crumbs over the cake and apply a thin layer of icing and set for 15 minutes to set the crumb coating applied over the cake.
  • In a paper cut a pentagon and Hexagon shapes of equal sizes because the lines should match each other.
  • Using this as a guide, mark the outlines using a knife, Use pentagon for black and hexagon for white colour.
  • Using a piping bag fitted with star nozzle pipe the icing over the cake.
  • Chill the cake and serve.

Ball Cake