Ingredients:

• Cake mix (I used one box of Betty Crocker Butter Pecan) and whatever it needs (eggs, oil)
• Frosting
• Food Coloring

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray the bottom of a 13×9 in dish with baking spray (the kind that says it has flour).  Grease a 1 qt Pyrex bowl with shortening and then, coat with flour.
2. Make the cake mix and pour 1.5 cups of the batter into the 1 qt bowl.  Then, pour the remaining batter into the 13×9 dish.  [If you want the sheet cake taller or the soccer ball higher, then, you could use two cake mixes, but I just preferred to use one box).
3. Bake the 13x9 dish for 20-30 mins, depending on your oven.  [You might be able to bake the soccer ball and sheet cake at the same time, but I was too nervous to try that, so I baked the sheet cake first, and then, I baked the soccer ball.]  And then, bake the 1 qt bowl 25-35 mins.  Cool each cake for 10 minutes.
4. Then, turn an 8×8 dish upside down and spray the bottom/underside of it with flour baking spray.  Flip it over, and push the coated side onto the sheet cake, in order to get rid of the “dome” shape.  It really works!  With the soccer ball cake, I used a Tupperware bowl (sprayed) to push that dome shape down.  (Sorry I didn’t take a picture, but you can look here: http://www.ehow.com/how_4816098_soccer-ball-cake.html at step #3 for the idea).
5. Flip the sheet cake over onto the serving tray (I put wax paper under mine, so I’d be able to tear the paper off, in case I messed up with the frosting).  And flip the soccer ball onto a plate.  Freeze cakes for 1 hour each.
6. I frosted each cake with a thin layer of frosting as a skim/crumb coat (blue sky, green grass, and white for soccer ball).  Then, I put them back in the freezer for almost an hour.
7. Put the soccer ball on top of the sheet cake.  [Frost the soccer ball again, if you think it needs another coat (I didn't).]  Cut out a pentagon shape and a hexagon shape.  The pentagon needs to be smaller than the hexagon.  [I can't remember my measurements.  I wanna say 1 3/4 in for the pentagon and 2 1/3 inch for the hexagon.]  Use a toothpick to outline the shapes onto the ball.
8. Then, fill in the pentagon with a star shaped tip (I used a decorator’s icing tube) and the lines with a straight tip with whatever color you choose; typically black, but Abs wanted purple.
9. For the sheet cake: Re-frost most of the cake blue (for the sky).  Re-frost the bottom part green for the grass.  If you have fancy tips/bags, you can make it look more like grass.  I don’t, so I frosted it, and then used a spatula to pull at the frosting from different angles.  I used a decorator’s icing tube to make the soccer net, but I ran out and had to use a knife to do the soccer goal.
10. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

The camera was in Abs’s room while she was napping, while I was making the cake.   So, I didn’t get a chance to take pictures, until J got home, and we used his iPhone.  Sorry.

I started making this cake about 11 am on Saturday and finished around 4 pm (maybe?).  And the party was on Sunday, but the cake still tasted great on Sunday and the next day and the next day . . .

Store loosely covered at room temperature.

Any questions?

I made this the night before my daughter’s birthday, and I would definitely recommend preparing the cake a day in advance.

Ingredients:

• Two 3 oz boxes of Berry Blue Jello gelatin
• Two 9×13 inch cakes
• About 32 oz of frosting
• Decorators gel or writing icing
• Two large marshmallows and 14 mini marshmallows
• Toothpicks
• Rubber ducks or other bath animals

Directions:

1. Make gelatin according to the Jiggler recipe on the back of the packages.  Pour the mixture into an 8 inch square dish and chill in the fridge for about 50 minutes.  Take it out, and vigorously whisk the gelatin to create the ripples and bubbles.  Then, put back in the fridge for at least another 2 hours.
2. Before stacking the cakes, spread a thin coating of icing in between them.  Then, carve out a basin that is two inches from the edge of the cake.  Cut it about 1 inch deep using a knife with a serrated edge.  Then, you can spoon out the inside.  Or, if you want to use the inside for a smash cake– which is what I did– get someone to help you dig out the inside with spatulas.  I cut out the smash cake below from the part that was spooned out of the basin.



3. Frost the tub, including the walls, but don’t frost the floor of the basin.
4. For the faucet, stick four mini marshmallows on a toothpick.  Then, stick another 2 marshmallows on another toothpick.  Then, attach the toothpicks so the marshmallows look like an “L”.  Insert into the wall of the basin.
5. For each faucet knob, use scissors to snip 4 v-shaped notches in the top of a big marshmallow.  Then, press a mini marshmallow into each notch.  It could be sticky enough to keep the piece in place, but you might want to attach them with toothpicks, just in case. Put the knobs on either sides of the faucet.  Label them H for Hot and C for cold.
6. Cut the Jello to fit into the basin.  Spoon the Jiggler “water” into the basin.
7. Add ducks, fish, frogs, or other bath animals on top of the jello.

Check here to see the other decorations I “made”.  An fish aquarium with koolaid and fish bowls of goldfish crackers and gummy animals.

Now I need to start thinking of what to do for her second birthday.  What cakes did you make your kids?  What ideas are you looking into?

Submitted to Mmm Monday at Mommies with Cents