Three Tier Basketball Themed Cake

Left: Inspiration photo                                Right: My completed cake

My daughter asked if I could help make a cake for her boyfriend's son.

Cautiously, I asked if she had a picture of the cake.

Happily, she whipped out her phone and showed me the inspiration photo on the left.

I have only made one fondant covered, stacked, three tiered cake before. 

Now you understand my caution. My wedding cake, six years ago, was the first and only cake I have ever made that was a stacked, three tiered cake. However, as you have seen in my spring posts, I've been making layer cakes with three layers. My self-assessed, cake leveling skills have progressed with each cake I make. 

As I carefully examined the picture and filed away the individual details, I knew she didn't have the equipment, or the experience, to make a cake of this size and type. Luckily, Mom does have all of the equipment, recipes, and knows how to stack a cake. lol...lol

Anyone else have adult children who approach you like this? 

I wasn't being directly asked to make the cake. Hmmmm...do you think there was an unspoken question being asked?

My next question was,"When do you need it?"

"June 3rd or 4th." she replied.

I sighed in relief. My calendar was empty for the first week in June. We discussed the pros and cons of making the cake. Finally, I told her if she would buy the ingredients, I would make the cake. 

About a week later, 

she brought me the cake mixes, powdered sugar, corn syrup, and shortening to make the cakes, frosting, filling, and rolled buttercream fondant. 

After putting the ingredients away, 

my mind filed the cake plans away and I concentrated on subbing for summer school.

During summer school on May 19th,  

I received a text from my daughter that read,

"Mom, we had to change the date of the party from June to May 28th."

Sheesh! I wasn't even supposed to be at home from May 26th -May 29th! 

My immediate reaction kind of overwhelmed me. However, after thinking it through, I knew I could make the cake and take it to her to refrigerate on Wednesday. Hopefully, my moist cake would still be moist. 

Then, stormy weather stepped in and changed my original plans. 

The hubby and I stayed home and I was able to make, store, and deliver the cake after all! Thank-you Jesus for making everything work out. 

Check out the pictures and tips below.

Ten inch base, or bottom tier covered in rolled buttercream fondant with fondant lettering and decorations applied. Cardboard and supports are in place for the second tier to sit on.

Click Here   for the rolled buttercream fondant recipe.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY lettering cut with alphabet fondant cutters.
Tip: Dip fondant cutters into a bowl of powdered sugar until they are well coated . Then cut the letters. Dip cutters back into the sugar as needed to prevent sticking.

Eight inch, second tier covered with black fondant and fondant flames. My first attempt at making flames, ever!

How to Make the Flames

I used a 3" crown cookie cutter to make the flames. 

First I  cut out 7 fondant crowns. 

Next, I cut the crown points with a sharp knife and formed flame points. The handle of a paintbrush and the tip of a paring knife were helpful in forming the flames. 

Four inch top tier. I cut and layered two jumbo cupcakes to make the tier. The covering, lettering, and decorations are made of rolled buttercream fondant. The basketball lines are piped royal icing  

1. Fondant basketballs with flames. My flame making skills progressed as I worked on this project. 

2. The red and blue logo at top is made of fondant and the white figure is royal icing.

Lesson learned: pipe royal icing figures onto waxed paper at least twenty-four hours ahead of time. 

How to Pipe the Netting using Royal Icing

1.Pipe evenly spaced dots of frosting around the top of the hoop. 

2. Pipe a second row of dots below and between the top row.

3. Pipe lines from the top row dots to the second row dots forming upside down triangles. 

4. Pipe a third row of dots below the second row. These dots should be aligned vertically with the dots in the first row.

5. Pipe lines from the dots in the second row to the dots in the third row. This will form diamonds. 

6. Pipe a fourth row of dots around the base that are aligned vertically with the dots in the second row.

7. Pipe lines from the tip of each diamond to the dots in the bottom row.