We had my son’s 5th birthday party at a local bowling alley. They took care of everything except for the cake, which was fine by me because I love to decorate birthday cakes! I also did the goody bags which included t-shirts for each of the guests with “Tyler’s Tenpins” written on the back.
The bowling cake was a chocolate cake done in a round ball-shaped cake pan. I frosted it and then used fondant, swirled with blue dye, for a smooth surface to look like a swirly bowling ball. The finger holes were also made from fondant.
The bowling pins are made from chocolate chip cookie cake – I pressed cookie dough into a flat pan and cooked it as directed. When it was mostly cooled I cut the 3 bowling pins out. I cut fondant to layer on top of the pins with a little bit of frosting underneath to act as “glue”. The red stripes were simply “fruit by the foot”.
This ended up being the “adult cake” because I also made miniature bowling pin cookies (using another sheet of cookie cake and a mini bowling pin cookie cutter and fondant) as well as bowling ball cupcakes with blue frosting and 3 M&M’s as finger holes. I served the cupcakes along-side miniature bowling pin cookie to the kids.
I’m pretty sure the kids were all on a sugar-high by the time they went home that afternoon, but everyone loved the cakes and they tasted great, too! I had a lot of fun making these and was proud of the way they came out.
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I love your cake..going to try it this weekend, i wanted some info on the ball pan that you used. was this a soccer ball cake pan that you used? that’s what I bought, but it seems so big?
I may be too late to answer your question, but yes, the bowling ball is the soccer ball cake pan. I did a baseball in it last year, too. Covered with fondant you can’t see any of the “grooves”.
This is so cute. I love your idea. My niece doesn’t like icing, so I’m going to simplify it and I have the plain ball cake pan. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks – glad you like it! Yes the bowling ball cake was done in the soccer ball shaped pan. I only fill it about 2/3 of the way with cake batter and I still have to cook the cake longer in that pan than the directions say. Once the cake is cooled, I “trim” the bottom of the ball so that it’s a flat surface – which is probably why it looks smaller.
Good luck – hope that helps!
Hi! Great cake! Thanks for sharing. I am going to try it. We are a bowling family and have lots of parties at the bowling alley.
Hi
love this bowling cake. my 6 yr old daughter wants her party at a bowling alley this year. I have a question about the cake ingredients though. did u use chocolate chip cookie mix but make it in a pan or is a cake mix? Ive never heard of that before. do u have pics of your cupcakes as well/
thanks for your help.
How did you get the swirl in the fondant? I love what you did, and would love to try a rainbow swirl for my daughter who loves rainbow colors, but is having a bowling party in a couple weeks. Thanks!
Thanks for such a great idea and instructions!! I’m going to make this for my nephew’s 8th bday in just a couple weeks. He’s so excited about it too! :) This is just what he wanted.