My girlfriend and I made this Bowling Ball Birthday Cake for her uncle’s 50th birthday party. We have been creating cakes together for about 3 months now…but this ended up being the most ambitious by far! The original idea started with just doing a rectangular sheet cake and putting a bowling lane on the top. This would have been simple…and he would have loved it.
However I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to make the bowling alley look good so I scratched that idea and went with a modified version of what we ended up with! The original design didn’t call for the “wood” lane tier, it was just going to be the reverse of the bottom tier (red with white stripes).
As we progressed with making the cake it became more and more clear to me that I would HAVE to make it look like wood somehow if it was going to be AWESOME! The solution actually came to me in a dream! I woke up in the middle of the night, and I was so excited! Well, as you can see, it turned out pretty well!
Fast Facts:
The cake is 100% edible!
Both tiers and the ball are covered in homemade fondant. (that’s right…fondant that tastes GOOD!)
The pins and small balls are also made of homemade fondant
The “wood” lane tier is hand “painted’. I used lemon juice mixed with various food colorings as “paint”. (My background as a painter came in handy here!)
Both tiers are 3 layers of cake with chocolate frosting in between
The ball was made using the Wilton Sports Ball Pan Set
The whole thing is devil’s food cake
The cake took over 25 hours to make!
It is almost 24 inches tall!
It weighed 22 pounds!
It tasted even better than it looked!
Looking back there are a few things we would have done differently. I would like for the bowling ball to come out just a little rounder and I need to find a way to make the ball not “sag” under the weight of the fondant. I was really happy with the way the “wood” turned out!
All in all we had a great time making this cake! Her uncle was completely blown away by it! On a side note, don’t you just love how once people find out you can make cakes they expect you to make cakes for them…for FREE! Oh well, guess it comes with the territory!
Thanks for letting me share my story! If you have questions or comment, please leave them below! I appreciate any and all feedback!
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I love your cake. My husband has been pretty good at making themed cakes. We want to make this for my son’s bowling party next month. How exactly did you make the “wood” look? You said you mixed lemon juice and food coloring.. but into what? Icing?
Thanks
Laura