Soccer Cupcake Toppers

Easy soccer cupcake toppers tutorial to decorate soccer-themed cupcakes. The step by step guide is really a great help for anyone wanting to learn how to make these soccer ball cupcake toppers!

I used these soccer ball cupcake toppers for my soccer-themed cupcakes. They were made entirely of royal icing and are totally edible. And these toppers are pretty easy to make too so long as you have the royal icing in the right consistency. And the soccer ball templates ready.

These cute ball toppers need time to set, preferably overnight. Therefore, they need to be made in advance. This, in turn, is absolutely good because then you get to make them in advance and don't have to rush at the last minutes to complete your cupcakes decoration.

Let's see my full tutorial on how to make these soccer cupcake toppers below:

How to Make Soccer Cupcake Toppers

These were the main supplies I used to make the soccer cupcake toppers:

Royal icing - I made the royal icing using meringue powder (click here for the recipe). I wanted the icing to be in medium stiff consistency. So I reduced the amount of icing sugar I added into the icing (my recipe is for a stiff consistency icing). The icing should still form peaks in this consistency, it's just that it will be easier to pipe in this consistency as compared to the stiff consistency.
Soccer ball templates - these are the next most important item in making the soccer ball toppers.
Food color - I used Wilton gel paste food color in black, red, green, and brown for the black sections of the soccer ball. I find mixing these colors gave me a better shade of black than if I was to use only black food color. As for the white sections of the balls, I did not add any color to the royal icing. Its original white color was perfect for the white.
Wilton round tip number 2 to pipe the outlines and fill the sections of the ball toppers with icing.
Disposable piping bags - I used 2 piping bags, one for the black icing and the other for the white one. Both were fitted with round tips.

And this was how I made the toppers:

Soccer ball templates

First and foremost, I prepared the templates. These can be hand-drawn. But I traced mine from an online image and resized it to fit the cupcakes. I have a separate tutorial on how to resize images for cake decorating and you can read all about it here. I drew them slightly smaller than the diameter of the cupcakes. This is so that they could fit nicely within the diameter of the cupcakes.

Once I had the right sized image of the soccer balls, I traced them onto parchment paper. I made a number of these templates, including an extra 3 for breakage allowance. You would basically need to draw out as many templates as the number of cupcakes you wish to decorate with the toppers unless you are willing to repeat making these cupcake toppers the next day.

Each soccer topper would need to be 'dried' overnight before peeling off the parchment paper templates. Hence, having all the templates ready means you do not need to repeat the piping work the next day and wait for the day after for the toppers to dry.

Option 1 for the templates

I traced mine onto pieces of parchment squares that I cut out from a larger sheet of parchment paper. I cut each of the parchment squares such that they could fit the soccer ball template. Having the templates on smaller pieces of parchment makes piping and handling the templates easier. It is important that you use parchment paper for the piping. This really helps with releasing the toppers once they are set. I have used greaseproof paper before. But the royal icing tends to stick to the paper even after it is all set and dry.

Next, I turned each template over and attached them to cake boards with some blue tac. The reason for turning the templates over is to make sure the pencil markings do not get transferred to the royal icing as I pipe on them.

By turning the template over, you would still be able to see the ball pattern. You can use it as a guide to pipe the royal icing.

Option 2 for the soccer topper templates

The other way of doing this is by drawing the template on a single piece of parchment (instead of drawing on many pieces of parchment paper). Attach that template onto a cake board. To make the toppers, place smaller pieces of parchment cut-outs (without any drawing on) on the template. Pipe out the balls.

Since the parchment paper is quite see-through, you would actually be able to see the pattern underneath it. Once the piping is done, simply remove the top parchment piece (with the ball piping). Set it aside to dry, and continue the process for more toppers.

Soccer ball template glued to a cake board

Piping and filling the soccer ball toppers template

I started the piping work by piping an outline on the center hexagon, fitted with round tip #2 .

Black outline piping on a soccer ball parchment template

I then I piped another line inside the first outline as shown below.

And finally, the third row until the entire hexagon is all filled and black.

Black piping in the center of a soccer ball parchment template

Once the center was done, I moved on to the remaining sections of the ball. The side sections were pentagons, and I filled alternate ones with black, in the same manner, I did for the hexagon shape in the center.

Black sections of a soccer ball parchment template filled with black icing

Once black was completed, I started with the white sections. Since royal icing is naturally white, there was no need to tint it white.

Similar to the black sections of the soccer ball, I started with an outline. Then, I worked my way towards the center. Since the black sections of the ball are already piped, you need to make sure the white and black outlines are really close enough to cover even the smallest gap between them. Repeat the process until all the parts of the ball have been filled.

Black sections of a soccer ball parchment template filled with black icing, and one white section outlined in white

Royal icing soccer ball on a parchment square

And here's how the completed topper looked like. I set these soccer cupcake toppers aside in a cool and dry place to allow them to set completely. I normally leave mine overnight to allow them to dry and set completely. Since the piping was done on parchment paper, it is easy to peel it off the parchment paper once the piped balls have dried.

Peeling the soccer toppers and attaching them to cupcakes

Once set, I slowly peel off the parchment paper. If the icing has dried well, this process should be easy. Here is how the completed soccer cupcake topper looked like after peeling off the parchment paper.

Royal icing soccer ball on a brown backgroud

To attach the soccer toppers to the cupcakes, I used a dab of royal icing behind each topper and placed them on the cupcakes. This is how my soccer ball cupcakes looked like. Click here to read more about these cupcakes.