March 14, 2013

Los Angeles Lakers Cake

Laker's Basketball Birthday Cake

This cake was made for a friend who is 10 and a Los Angeles Lakers basketball fan.  All the decorations are hand cut with fondant and below is how it was done.


Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links and if you click on the link and purchase the item, I may receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.

The cake is an 8 inch round, chocolate cake filled with Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC).  You will find my recipe at the bottom of this post, 80th Birthday Cake with IMBC Recipe.  The cake is then covered in Marshmallow Fondant (MMF).  Visit my page with MMF recipes, tips and information found HERE, Marshmallow Fondant Recipes.

top view of hand cut and piped fondant Laker's logo and lettering.

The logo was made using the same technique on my Boston Red Sox Cake (click HERE to see it).


Close up of the gumpaste Laker's Basketball logo hand cut and piped in sugar.

The only difference is the "Los Angeles" font and the dashes around the "Lakers" was hand piped (these were just too tiny to hand cut out of fondant).  In order for the purple piping to match the other purple on the cake, I diluted the MMF with a tiny bit of hot water and mixed it up really well until it was evenly melted.  I then piped it using a #1 round piping tip and a toothpick to help move each stroke into it's proper place as I tried to copy the logo as exact as I could.


Close up of basketball ball texture around the cake.

Those wonderful basketball bumps...to achieve the basketball texture I used a #5 round piping tip and punched them one by one around the entire cake.  It took an hour alone to get the texture done but the effect achieved by it was well worth it.  Doesn't it look neat?

For the black striping along the sides of the cake, I first impressed the pattern on the sides of the cake using one of those tear drop shaped flower shaping tools (don't know the name for it), used a clay extruder to extrude the black "rope", then smoothed them "into" the impression on the cake so that the stripes were more flushed to the surface rather than protruding way out.

As for the base board, I was trying to achieve the basketball court flooring.  I cut out the individual panels, scored them with the thin tool to get the wood grain, assembled them on the board, then brushed it over with clear piping gel that I diluted way down with vodka that was mixed with a teeny drop of brown gel color.  The piping gel dries glossy and helps the board resemble the shiny basketball floor quite well I think.

Visit the bottom of my post about making a Wine Bottle In a Crate Cake for the Piping Gel Recipe.

Close up of handcut gumpaste Laker's jerseys on cake.

I hand cut the Laker's Jersey's (one purple jersey and one yellow jersey) and added the birthday boys age to them using the FMM Tappit Cutter Set.

Lot's of details were added and textures were added to this cake but it makes for a really cool, kids birthday cake.  Hope you like it!

Side view of the Laker's Basketball Birthday Cake.

7 comments:

  1. Your cake designs are so perfect. The details are amazing. You must have patience of a saint! How did you transfer the fonts for letter piping (i.e. Los Angeles on the basket ball cake?

    NhatHa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi NhatHa, thank you. Too bad that patience gets me no sleep many times (I could be up all night working on a cake). There's a link on the blog post that takes you to the Red Sox Cake I did. On there is an explanation on how I transferred the letters. I printed the logo out as a mirrored image (backwards and right to left) and used it as a template. Hope that helps explain it some.

      Delete
  2. What do you use for your base board? Thank you p.s. do you have an instagram? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Denise - I glue 2-3 cardboard circles together and then top them with fondant and ribbon along the trim. I don't have an instagram for cakes at the moment. I am on Flickr and Facebook.

      Delete
  3. Hi,

    Did you decorate the cake board first the placed the cake onto it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Monica. Yes, I decorate the cake board first. Usually a few days ahead so that it'll have some time to dry. Once the cake is covered in fondant, I place it over the cake board using either royal icing or piping gel as the glue to hold it in place.

      Delete
  4. AnonymousJuly 12, 2013

    Thank you so much. I'm new to using fondant and was asked to make a cake for my uncle and since he's a HUGE Lakers fan I thought this would be really nice for him.

    ReplyDelete