Yesterday was Fran’s (a.k.a. QC’s) birthday and for any who know her she feels Dani Rojas had it almost right: “Baseball is life” but Dani, American football is a close second.

To celebrate. I decided to make personalized, individual baseball birthday cakes. I had 2 1/2 inch silicone hemisphere molds but thought they would be too small a piece of cake so I bought two 3” ones. (In hindsight, the smaller ones were probably adequate, but would be more difficult to decorate.)

Due to the need to keep the cakes cold this is a pretty long procedure. It required about 6 hours total.

Extreme Chocolate Cake Baseballs

Makes five 3” spherical cakes

INGREDIENTS
• For Cake: 3 cups white sugar
• 2⅔cups all-purpose flour
• 1¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2¼ teaspoons baking soda
• 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 1½ teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1½ cup milk
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1½ cup boiling water
• For Buttercream: 2 stick softened butter
• 2cup icing sugar
• 4-6 Tbl milk
• For Raspberry Buttercream: 1 stick softened butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2-3 Tbl milk
• 6 oz fresh raspberries
• For White Chocolate Ganache: 450g White Chocolate
• 110g (½ cup) heavy cream
• ~1 tsp white food coloring
• For the Black Royal Icing: 1c (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted.
• 1 Tbl meringue powder (not plain egg white powder)
• 3 drops black food coloring
• 1 Tbl Black Cocoa
• 2-3+ Tbl room temperature water
• For the Red Royal Icing: 1 c (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted.
• 1 Tbl meringue powder (not plain egg white powder)
• 3+ drops red food coloring
• 2-3+ Tbl room temperature water

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Spray two 3” cell diameter silicone molds with Pam For Baking or equivalent. Line a 9×11” jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
2. Make the cake: In a stand mixer bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 3 minutes. Stir in the boiling water by hand.
3. Use a 1/3 measuring cup to fill each well two thirds full.
4. Pour remaining batter into jelly roll pan and spread to flatten.
5. Bake for ~25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or 205 internal temp. Do NOT let the internal temp exceed 205 deg F or the cakes will be overdone.
6. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from silicon molds to cool completely.
7. Remove he cakes from the molds and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up the cakes.
8. Set small sheet cake aside to be used as a base for the baseballs when serving.
9. While the cakes are cooling make the raspberry buttercream:
   a. Make Raspberry Syrup: Heat 170g of raspberries in a small saucepan with two Tbl sugar and heat until boiling.
   b. When the raspberries are very tender mash them to break them into a sauce.
   c. Sieve the raspberries to remove the seeds and pulp and return to heat to reduce by half then cool.
   d. Make Raspberry Buttercream: Mix the butter and icing sugar and raspberry syrup. Add more milk as required to make the buttercream soft and easily spreadable. Beat at high speed until the buttercream is smooth and well mixed. (You may need to add the additional milk to achieve the desired viscosity as the cake will be very tender and fragile.)
10. Form and assemble the cake balls: With a sharp knife cut the top of each hemisphere to flatten and create a small hole in each cake (I used a melon scoop)
    a. Fill the hole in each hemisphere and cover half of the cakes with buttercream
    b. Mate each coated hemisphere with an uncoated one and return to fridge to set the buttercream.
11. Make vanilla and grass-green buttercream: Repeat making raspberry buttercream but substituting milk for raspberry syrup. Divide the buttercream 4::1. Color the larger amount with green food coloring to use to decorate the sheet cake later.
    a. Use the vanilla buttercream to fill any holes around the circumference of the cake ball and crumb coat each ball. (I dipped the ball in a thin buttercream and used gloved hands to smooth.)
    b. Return to the fridge to set the buttercream.
12. Make the white chocolate ganache: The ganache must be pourable but thick enough to cover each ball with a smooth coating.
    a. Fill a saucepan with water to about 2 inches deep.
    b. Place a metal or glass bowl over the warm water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water.
    c. Place the chocolate and cream in the bowl and stir frequently. When the chocolate is almost completely melted, remove it from the heat and let the rest of the chocolate melt while it sits off the heat. Add white food coloring until the desired level of whiteness is achieved and mix well. If there is any un-melted chocolate let it rest until all the chocolate melts. As long as the mixture is warm, the chocolate will continue to melt.
13. To coat the balls: Place each cold ball on a stable surface that will keep them in place.
    a. Smooth the cold balls with gloved hands.
    b. Pour the white ganache over each ball, covering completely. Allow the chocolate to harden at room temperature, or in for fridge.
    c. If desired re-coat the balls by chilling them and repeat from step #12.
14. Make the Black Royal Icing: Combine confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, black food coloring, black cocoa and 2 Tbl of water in a large bowl.
    a. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5 – 2 minutes.
    b. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, beat in more water a few drops at a time.
    c. I usually need 3 Tbl but on particularly dry days, I use up to 4-5 Tbl.
    d. Keep in mind that the longer you beat the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air OR you can add more confectioners’ sugar.
    e. Remember the icing has to flow through a very small piping tip so it cannot be to thick. If it’s too thin it will run (for reference, see my photos)
15. Make the Red Royal Icing: Sift confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder into a large bowl and add 2 Tablespoons of water.
    a. Add half the water after sifting the sugar. Add the remaining water or more, checking flow consistency of the icing is what you want for piping etc.
    b. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5 – 2 minutes.
    c. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, beat in more water a few drops at a time. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air OR you can add more confectioners’ sugar.
    d. When applied to cookies or confections in a thin layer, icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature, quicker in the fridge.
16. Decorating the baseballs: Use black royal icing to draw the seams of the baseball. (I suggest doing one ball at a time, returning to the fridge between piping steps.) I wanted each person’s name written in script on each baseball using the black royal icing.
    a. After all the names and seams are piped and the black royal icing is setting in the fridge, clean the piping pen and fill with red royal icing.
    b. Remove the baseballs from the refrigerator, one at a time, and pipe the red stitches in the traditional baseball style.
    c. Return the baseballs to the fridge but bring them to room temperature an hour before serving.
17. Make turf: Cut small sheet cakes into 3×3” squares and pipe green buttercream covering each square using a Wilton 233 piping tip or equivalent. Center each baseball cake on a piece of turf.