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–+ servings
cake shaped and decorated like a basketball on a black cake stand.

Basketball Cake

Make this 3D basketball cake for any rookie of the year, basketball loving kiddo or for your March Madness party!
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Decorating Time 1 hour
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 6 people

Equipment

  • serrated knife
  • 3D cake pan
  • offset spatula
  • cake board optional
  • cooling rack
  • piping bags I like disposable ones

Ingredients
  

  • Cake mix in your flavor of choice eggsoilwater (or you can use a homemade recipe- completely up to you!)
  • eggs
  • oil
  • water

Buttercream Frosting

  • 1 cup Butter
  • 2½ cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2½ tablespoon milk
  • 3-4 drops orange and black food coloring

Instructions
 

Making Your Cake

  • Combine your dry and wet ingredients for your cake. Prep your baking pan by spreading crisco around the dish. You could also use a nonstick spray.
  • Add your batter to your 3D mold, filling about ⅔ of the way. Bake following the recipe or box instructions.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Flip cake pan upside down so it can rest and continue to cool on a cooling rack.

Making Buttercream Frosting

  • Allow a stick of butter to come to room temperature.
  • Combine butter, vanilla, milk and powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Using a stand or hand mixer combine until butter is completely combined.
  • Separate into two bowls, ¾ of the buttercream going in one and ¼ in the second. This will be for your orange and black frosting. Add a few drops of gel food coloring to each bowl. Stir with a spatula (I like these silicone ones) until color is incorporated.
  • Add colors to piping bags and set aside. I usually put them in a glass so they stay standing up.

Decorating Your Basketball Cake

  • Once your cake has completely cooled, use your serrated knife to cut off a bit of the centers of the cakes so that they will sit pretty evenly together. Also use it to cut off a little of the top/rounded part of one cake. This will be how it stands up and how it looks like a basketball.
  • Put a little icing on a cake board (or plate) and put the bottom of the cake on top. The frosting will act as glue to hold the cake to the plate. Then add your frosting to the top of that cake which will be the middle of the cake. Place the other piece of cake on top and allow to set. The frosting will hold the pieces together.
  • Add your orange buttercream frosting in a twist/circular motion. When working with a 3D cake I found this to be the easiest way! I did this about halfway down the cake and then used my offset spatula to smooth it out all over the cake, pushing the excess down to cover the bottom piece/section.
  • To make it a true basketball cake, after it's been smoothed all around take your black buttercream and begin to add stripes to the cake in a basketball pattern/style. Allow to cool and store to serve.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!