I made this Football Helmet Birthday Cake for our son for his tenth birthday. He LOVES Texas Longhorns so I just had to attempt to make him one. The top of the cake was baked in the Wilton ball pan which was then placed on top of two 9″ round cakes.
I used 3 boxes of cake mix for this cake and the icing is the Wilton crusting buttercream recipe from the Wilton site. I doubled the icing recipe in order to have enough. I crumb coated the cakes before I layered them and carved off a little less than half of the layer cakes for the face mask “hole”.
I then carved off any excess from the sides to round it up. The face guard is made from pipe cleaners. The longhorns are made out of royal icing with orange and a little brown food coloring mixed in. I printed off a longhorn template from the internet, taped some wax paper over that(on a flat surface) and just piped the icing over the image. I then removed the wax paper(with icing on it) and taped it down to the side of the ball pan so when it dried it would have the shape of the side of the helmet.
For the black icing in the “hole” of the face mask, I used canned chocolate icing with a little black food coloring mixed in. I used the Viva paper towel method to get the icing as smooth as I could. I also used a couple of wooden dowels in the cake for support.
I think it turned out pretty good for my first sculpted cake and our son was VERY happy with it.
Whats the Viva paper towel method?
The Viva paper towel method is just using a paper towel to smooth out your icing. You have to use a crusting buttercream icing for it to work. Once you ice your cake you allow it to sit for several minutes until it doesn’t stick to your fingers when you touch it, then you just lay your paper towel on the surface and lightly run your hand over the paper towel. The warmth from your hand will warm the icing just enough that it will smooth out nicely. If you don’t have a Viva paper towel you can use another brand but keep in mind, if it has a raised design on the towel it will leave a design on your cake. I’ve seen it done with a regular paper towel and it left pretty little swirl marks on the cake. It was very nice! Again, this was my first cake and it was nowhere near as smooth as I could have gotten it. With a little practice, I’ve been able to get my cakes much smoother now.