Football Hemisphere Cake

Football Hemisphere Cake by Lakeland

For the cake:

• 340g margarine, plus extra to grease
• 340g caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 340g self-raising flour, plus extra to dust cake pan
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

For the filling 

• 2 tbsp strawberry jam

For the base coat of icing (crumb coat)

• 125g softened butter
• 200g icing sugar
• 50g cocoa powder

To decorate:

• ready-to-roll white icing
• ready-to-roll black icing

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F. Grease and flour 2 Medium (16cm) Hemisphere Cake Pans.
2. Make the cake: mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 eggs and half of the flour, then beat in the last 2 eggs, vanilla essence and remaining flour. Transfer the mixture to the tins and bake for 50-55 minutes. Leave in the tins until completely cool.
3. Spread the flat edge with the jam and a little of the buttercream and set the rest aside. Put the cake halves together and place onto a cake board.
4. Decorate the cake: Cover the cake with the reserved buttercream and roll out the white icing to about the size of a dinner plate. Place onto the cake, and gently smooth from the top downwards before trimming away any excess.
5. Cut out two hexagonal and pentagonal templates out of paper. The edges of each shape for a medium sized pan are 350mm, start by rolling out the black icing and use the paper template to cut out 11 pentagons. Once they are all cut out, begin by placing the first pentagon to the very top of the cake, the rest of the pattern follows on from this. Using the hexagonal paper template, place it along one edge of the top pentagon and stick the next pentagon directly under this. Work your way around until you have stuck 5 pentagons in a ring, then repeat until the football is complete.

Tip: When placing icing shapes onto the iced cake, moisten the back with a little cool water first. This will help hold them in place.