Brian's Birthday. (May 2002)

This is the 2nd birthday cake I've done for Brian. I thought of the 2 things Brian seems to love most in this world--light blue and basketball--and used them to create a cake. It's a yellow cake in 4 layers. The bottom is 8", the next layer up is 6"x3", and the top 2 layers each are half of the Wilton ball pan. I sliced the bottom of the ball so it would sit flat on the cake, but I think I sliced a little too much off. Still, you can tell it's supposed ot be a basketball, right?

I did the basketball surface was in thousands of individually piped #3 dots. This is proof positive that I am stark raving mad. I flattened by hand after the icing dried slightly, in order to give it that realistic basketball look. (see last photo) It took forever and my hand was all cramped by the time I was done, but I was really happy with the way it turned out. Aren't you? Still, next time I'm just going to use #16 stars instead of #3 dots. My hand *still* hurts.

Addendum: May 2004: Brian just told me that he actually *lived* off this cake for 5 days, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Problems: no real problems. like i said, i sliced a little too much off the bottom of the basketball, but i still think the cake turned out pretty, well. And Brian certainly seemed to like it, which is what really matters.