Need to make a baseball cake?
Not too long ago I made a golf ball smash cake for a friend's kiddo's first birthday. It was a learning curve, but - IMHO - it actually turned out super cute!
After the design snags I had to get through to make that one - cake shape, how to work with a half-sphere pan, getting the frosting color right, etc - I felt decently armed to try a baseball cake.
Fortunately, I didn't have to wrestle with the indents or 'divots' that are part of decorating a golf ball cake.
That said though - this one came with a few of its own issues! Go figure, right?
Design issues I had to work out -
HOW to get the frosting smooth?
I didn't have to get super nuts about getting the frosting smooth for my last half sphere cake - I was just going to add the indents to the outside. NBD! That story changed with this cake. Baseballs *are* pretty smooth on the outside, so I had to figure out how to pull that off.
I know not everyone has acetate sheets on hand, so I tried out folded pieces of wax paper and parchment paper. (A single sheet was too thin to shape the frosting.) If you're okay with a few lines left behind in the frosting, parchment or wax paper will work. They got the frosting decently smooth. But I didn't like those residual lines they left, so I went over it again with a small acetate square. Square-ish rectangle. Whatever. 😉
HOW to mark the stitching lines?
I can't tell you how many photos I looked at - of baseballs and baseball cakes - to decide roughly where the stitching lines needed to go. Honestly, still think I might not have added enough of an arc, but hey. I know for next time now. Marking roughly where I wanted the stitch lines to go with toothpicks worked well. Two laid on top gave me rough guidelines, then using a third toothpick to draw a faint line in the frosting to follow with the piping bag. The actual stitching was a whole different story, but the line the stitching followed turned out okay!
The dang red stitching.
Lord have mercy. I won't lie to you, I'm still not 100% happy with how the stitching turned out. I even scraped off and re-piped the really wonky lines and they still look a bit of a mess.
But I gave it a solid college try - and my 3-year-old still recognized it as a baseball! Anyway, all that to say - if you're not sure your piping skills are up to snuff, neither are mine. And your cake will still be recognizable as a baseball!
Recipe and supply links for everything I used are below - happy baseball-cake-baking! Have fun! 🙂
(Disclosure: As an Amazon associate I may earn from qualifying purchases, and my posts often contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you!)
Don't forget to pin this recipe for later!
Baseball Cake
Equipment
- Baker's floured cooking spray (optional)
- large flower nail (optional but highly recommended; helps the cake bake evenly)
- Cake leveler (or a serrated knife - you only need this if you want to cut the half sphere into layers)
- Cake turntable (optional, but makes smoothing the frosting much easier)
- Small acetate sheet (or small flexible piece of plastic; to smooth frosting. A folded piece of parchment or wax paper can work, but will tend to leave lines in the frosting.)
- small piping bag + small round tip + grass tip (I used the Wilton #2 round tip and and grass tip like this one - mine came from a larger set.)
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 box cake mix (Flavor's up to you; I used a french vanilla mix)
- ½ cup butter (melted and cooled)
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (room temperature, or use 1 cup milk mixed with with 2 tsp lemon juice)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
- ¾ cup butter (room temperature)
- ¾ cup shortening
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons frosting whitener (optional; see instructions before adding)
- 1-3 Tablespoons milk (if needed to reach a spreadable consistency)
- 2-3 large drops green gel food color
- 2-3 large drops Red gel food coloring
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177℃). Prepare a 6-inch half sphere pans with baker's floured cooking spray (or grease and flour pan well). Place flower nail in the base of cake pan (to help the cake bake more evenly).
- Combine melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl and mix until combined. Add in cake mix and stir until moistened (about 30 seconds), then beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- Pour batter into prepared pan (I didn't use all of the batter; an overfilled sphere pan will overflow and make a mess in your oven). Batter level should be about a centimeter (not quite half an inch) below the cake pan rim. (Might not hurt to place a baking sheet in the oven below the pan just in case.)
- Bake for 35-45 minutes, (or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing cake from pan.
- Cool to room temperature before cutting / decorating. (Place in the fridge to accelerate the cooling process if desired.) While you’re waiting…make your frosting!
Frosting
- Beat together butter and shortening; beat in powdered sugar and vanilla until well combined.
- (If using frosting whitener, remove 1 cup of frosting into another bowl - color half red for the stitching, and the rest deep green for the 'grass' frosting border. Add whitener to remaining frosting.) If not using whitener, remove 1 cup of frosting and color it red / green whenever you'd like :)
- Add milk if needed until frosting reaches an easily spreadable consistency.
Assembly & Decorating
- (If desired, use a cake leveler or large serrated knife to slice cake into 2 or 3 layers to fill with frosting).
- Place a smear of frosting on a plate or cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center cake in the center of the circle. Spread a thin coat (crumb coat) of frosting around the outside of the cake and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Once your crumb coat has set, add another thicker layer of frosting to the outside of the cake and smooth. I used a small offset spatula and credit-card-sized piece of acetate for this part. Set cake in the fridge for about 15-ish minutes to set the frosting - this helped me pipe the stitching without deforming the frosting.
- (This will probably be the most time-consuming step-) Now for the stitching! I marked my 'stitching lines' with toothpicks, dragging them through the frosting to make a 'guide' line for the stitch marks. Transfer red frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, and pipe sequential shallow 'V' shapes across the guide lines to make the ball stitching. Turn the cake around, and repeat the process with the points of the 'V's going the other direction. (This is the other reason chilling the cake helped me- I had a couple 'V's get really wonky, and being able to pull them off with a toothpick and re-pipe them was really helpful.)
- Transfer green frosting to a piping bag fitted with a grass tip, and pipe a rim of grass around the cake base. High-five yourself on your awesome cake - and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Other recipes you may love -
(Click / tap any of the photos below to be taken to the recipe pages!)
