Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone ever tried to ice a sphere. I have done one dummy one and it wasn’t easy. I now have a sponge one to do nearer Christmas and I just wondered if anyone has done one and has any tips.

I am thinking of using ganache and doing one half first and then refrigerate and then the other half but if the customer does not want ganache then the only option I can think of is jam…me thinks I am going to get quite sticky…lol

Hi
I’ve done a couple of teapot cakes, where I used the 5″ round sphere tin. The first one was fruit, and was baked in the 2 halves joined, and the 2nd one was sponge, baked in 2 separate halves. Because of the design of the teapot, I was able to cut a small slice off the bottom, so it would stand, then I covered it exactly as I would any other cake, eg fruit, marzipan and sugar paste, and spong, filled, coated with buttercream, and covered with sugar paste….and yes, it does get a bit sticky, but I refrigerate the buttercream one.
I think dummy cakes are harder to cover than a real cake, maybe because there’s no substance to them.

Hi Sharon54,

I think you are right, the polystyrene dummies are very light and difficult to do. I am going to do baubles and I can leave a little flat on the bottom so it can stand.

So when you butter cream them do you do it one half at a time and put in the fridge? And did you find the fruit one smooth enough after marzipan and icing?

Hi
With the sponge one, I filled it as normal, after cutting off the bottom bit, chilled for about 40mins, then covered it in sugar paste, exactly as I’d cover a round cake, It’s just a bit trickier getting out all the pleats, but it’s possible. The fruit cake came out really well, but any little holes in the fruit cake can be filled with marzipan, before the marzipan layer goes on. I’ve seen the baubles in Lindy Smiths book, they’re lovely, I’ve also seen the ball cakes done as snowballs too, which look great.

I followed the instructions in Lindy Smith’s book, sceptically I must admit. She fills the sponge cakes with jam and buttercream as usual. I cut a slice off the bottom as Sharon54 did and popped it in the freezer for just 15 mins. When putting on the icing Lindy says to bring the fondant together on either side into big pleats then cut them off with scissors. That’s what I was sceptical about but it worked! I smoothed the fondant just a little and the creases all came out, it was amazing. I’ve made 2 teapots and have plans and orders for many more ball shaped cakes. I worked the cakes on a piece of greasproof paper then released the cakes from that to lift them onto their boards. To do the dummy you might be best to stick it to a small board and stick that to your turntable so it doesn’t roll around. And by the way, I didn’t get any messier than when icing any other shape of cake – which is not at all 🙂 Hope that helps. Would love to see your bauble. Will you post it on Paul’s FB page?

Hi Debbie smith,
I will post the bauble on Paul’s Facebook page on Sunday under the name of Julie Gibbons.