Baseball Birthday Cake

We celebrated Adam's 3rd birthday last week!  Adam appreciates all things birthday, including parties, gifts and cake.  As my #1 cookbook reading companion, he also appreciates the importance of a good birthday cake design. 

 

For Adam's 2nd birthday, I assumed he wouldn't have an opinion about his cake yet.  I worked on a plan for ball-themed cupcakes...then Adam told me he wanted a fire truck cake.  I shelved those ball cake plans and found a great design for a fire truck cake.  It was a fun challenge...I was determined to deliver a fire truck cake! 

Considering how last year went, I should have known better.  Many months ago, Adam told me I could pick his cake this year.  I worked on some plans, came up with a great cake that I knew he would love.  And...you guessed it.  Within a couple days of his birthday, he told me he wanted a baseball cake.  Easy enough.  I ressurected my plans from last year to give Adam the Baseball Birthday Cake he wanted.  He was so excited about his ball cake, he started making plans for future ball cakes (i.e. Grandma wants a basketball cake, what ball do you want, mama,...). 

This Baseball Birthday Cake is very easy to put together.  I made the cake the night before and then frosted and decorated it the morning of the birthday.   While the general idea is basic, I am sharing this simply because everybody knows a baseball fan, and who doesn't love a fun cake!  This Baseball Birthday Cake is sure to put a huge grin on anybody's face.

Baseball Birthday Cake
Directions for decorating 1 baseball birthday cake

1 round cake, frosted with white frosting
red licorice vines
sweetened coconut (optional, for grass)
green food coloring (optional, for grass)

Directions:

1. Put cake on serving plate or cake board.
2. Cut licorice into 1/2" inch pieces (approximately 72-80 pieces, depending on size of and spacing on the cake). 
3. Take 2 licorice pieces to create a wide v-shape, like the lacing on a baseball, and place on top of the frosted cake.  Repeat with remaining pieces until desired "lacing" is achieved. 
4. To make grass, put coconut in a ziploc bag.  Put a couple drops of green food coloring in bag with coconut and seal bag.  Then shake and squeeze/massage together until coconut has turned green.  Sprinkle along outside of cake, as desired.

Note:   I found cutting the licorice vines the night before decorating made them less sticky on the hands when placing them on the cake.  Also, if you aren't able to find licorice vines, you can easily use red frosting for the laces.