My younger son plays for a semi-pro football team called the Outlaws. Every year I hope he’ll say he’s finished playing full contact football. I kinda figured when you can’t heal from one week to the next that would be a hint not to play. But being that I’m a Mom, of an adult who makes his own decisions, I’ll just ask about the games and try to get to a couple of them to cheer him on. He turned 29 this year and I thought I would make him a birthday cake with the team logo on it. Yea… a chance to try working with fondant!
I knew from all my wandering the aisles of my local JoAnn’s store that they had a cake decorating aisle with fondant there. Even though I had heard that the Wilton fondant didn’t taste very good, I went ahead and purchased it because my plan was to just use it over some cereal treat details on the cake.
Players number, football and team logo on a chocolate cake.
Now to make a pattern for the logo. My graphics experience comes in handy for this part of the process. I scanned a team sticker into the Illustrator program on my Mac and drew over the scan. That way I was able to size the logo to the cake. I also made patterns for the jersey number while on the computer. Print the patterns out and check the size. Okay, computer work… done.
I made a checkerboard white and chocolate cake. When cool, I stacked and frosted the cake with chocolate fudge frosting. I thought that the chocolate would be a good contrast to the team’s white, red and black logo. I put the cake in the refrigerator while I worked on the fondant
For some added dimension to the cake, I figured I’d make cereal treats and shape them into the Outlaw logo shape. Everything is just a learning process for me at this point. But so far, so good.
I did know that you had to frost the treat first, so the the fondant would have something to stick to. That accomplished, now my first experience with fondant could begin.
The fondant came in white only, so I started with the logo base first. Just knead it to soften, roll out evenly and drape over the piece. Smooth the  fondant with a smoothing tool and set aside. Okay, that was easy enough.
Now, to color the fondant two of the hardest colors to achieve… red and black. I found it takes so much coloring for those to be vibrant. I also learned that in making the fondant black, it turns your hands purple! Good thing I didn’t have any place to go any time soon. Always think out your colors ahead of time, it will save time in the long run. I started with adding a little black to the white fondant to make the grey color, wrapped a small part of it tightly and put it aside, then finished making the black with what was left. Next, I added red, to my already purple stained hands, by coloring some fondant red. Note to self… Next time use gloves while coloring fondant.
After cutting out the patterns, I evenly rolled out the black fondant. Placing the corresponding pattern on the fondant I used a sharp knife to cut around the pattern. Then I brushed the back of the piece with a little water and set it in place on the base. Following that system for the next layers of shapes that made up the logo, I soon had a finished topper for the cake!
The jersey number was next and went smoothly. Hey, this fondant stuff has all sorts of possibilities!
The football was an afterthought. Since I had some treats left I figured, “What the heck, I’ll make a football.” I found some gloves this time and I was ready to color fondant again! The football was quickly finished.
Now it was time to put the cake together. Quick and easy, I centered the topper on the cake and placed the numbers on the side. Stuck the football on the other side, stood back and decided that the cake seemed to need something else, so I colored some vanilla frosting green and piped some “grass” around the bottom of the cake. I think it helped to brighten the cake some.
I really enjoyed working with the fondant and was able to put the cake together pretty fast. Beginner’s luck? I don’t know. Next time I’ll try something harder and see what happens.
