Cake: Baseball

Tonight was my husband's softball team end of the season bbq. I made a cute little cake for the event.

To make my "baseball" I cooked the cake in my pyrex bowl to get the rounded shape. I cut a little bit off the top to flatten it. I used a yellow cake mix, and added a very ripe banana. This is the easiest way to make a very yummy, especially moist cake.

This is a tip that every cake-decorator needs to know. If you are using filling that is different from your outside icing, pipe a line of icing around the edge of the cake before filling it. The icing will help hold things together, and keep your filling from leaking out when you are icing your cake. You can see how this would be especially important for this cake. I covered it with white icing, and filled it with Nutella -- again, since this weekend's cupcakes were such a hit. :) And it was excellent with the yellow banana cake.

A trick I learned while making Martha Stewart's monkey cake: place three thin sheets of wax paper on the decorating surface as shown here.

After frosting, pull away the wax paper to leave a clean surface. Then pipe the bottom border around the cake.
Martha is a genius. But you already knew that. :)

I am little embarrassed to show the finished product. I was in a bit of a hurry, and didn't have time to smooth the icing. I also ended up using store-bought red icing from the little tube. I normally would tint my frosting to pipe on the design, which would give crisper lines.
But, the team LOVED it, and that is what really matters.
They loved the cake, and the fact that it displayed their undefeated record going into the play-offs! :)

2 layers of filling made it extra yummy!