Soccer Cupcakes

Easy soccer cupcakes decorating idea. The toppers are entirely edible. The best part is, they can be made in advance which means no scrambling at the very last minute to get them done!

What occasion did I make this soccer ball cupcakes for?

No occasion and for nobody.

This is what happens when you have extra icing and some extra cupcakes and get into the mood of decorating.

To be frank, this cupcakes design was inspired by a football cake I made recently. I had leftover icing from decorating the cake and thought I would try decorating some cupcakes with the same theme.

And so that’s how I came up with this soccer cupcakes.

The soccer balls on the cupcake are made of icing and are totally edible! Plus they can be made in advance. That just means that these cupcakes can be assembled fairly quickly without much scrambling at the very last minute!

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How to Make Soccer Ball Cupcakes

Here is what I used to come up with these cupcakes:

• Vanilla cupcakes – I used my butter pound cake recipe for the cupcakes and baked the cupcakes in silver cupcake liners.
• Royal icing in 3 colors – green, black and white. The green was tinted in Wilton Moss Green (to cover the cupcakes) and the black was tinted in a combination of black, brown, green, and red food colors. As for the white, I did not tint it as the natural white color of the royal icing was sufficient.
• Soccer ball template – I used a template to make the soccer ball toppers. That way, the toppers had a consistent size and design. To make the template, I traced a soccer ball image from an online image and resized it to fit the cupcakes. I did not want the balls to be bigger than the diameter of the cupcakes. And I did not want them too small that they look insignificant on the cupcakes. Once I had the right sized template, I traced the pattern onto a parchment paper. I made a couple of these soccer ball templates. The template can also be drawn freehand on paper.
• Wilton round tip 2 to pipe the royal icing. I had 2 of these round tips so that made it easier for me to not have to transfer them between the black and white icing when piping the soccer cupcake toppers.

And this is how I made the cupcakes

The soccer ball template

• I started by preparing the soccer ball templates as explained above. I made one template for each cupcake I was going to use the toppers on. Once I had the parchment paper templates ready, I turned the parchment paper over. I used black and white royal icing to draw and fill the soccer balls. I turn the templates over because I do not want any of the pencil marks to be transferred onto the toppers. Turning the paper over helps in making sure the pencil markings do not come into contact with the icing.

Piping the balls

• In piping the icing for the soccer balls, I used a round piping tip. I started with the black sections of the ball first and did not thin the royal icing. Instead, I used it in its original consistency. I piped the icing in a circular motion. As you can see in the image, it has left a pretty circular pattern on the soccer balls, giving them more texture. Once all the black sections of the soccer ball were done, I completed the piping with white royal icing by filling up all sections that were meant to be filled up in white.

• Once the piping was done, I left the balls aside for them to set and dry completely. I normally leave such royal icing decorations overnight so that there is ample time for the deco pieces to set. Once set, I peeled off the parchment paper (have to do this very carefully to avoid the soccer balls from breaking).

• This is the close-up picture of the royal icing soccer ball after peeling it off the parchment paper: 

Baking & decorating the cupcakes

• While the soccer cupcake toppers were waiting to set and firm up, I baked my cupcakes. I let the cupcakes cool down completely to room temperature before covering the top of each cupcake with green royal icing. I did not smooth the tops as much, and that was intentional. The green icing was meant to be the ‘grass’ on which the royal icing soccer balls are supposed to be put on. So I felt that letting the icing appear rough of the cake is most suited for the grass.

• Since the soccer cupcakes were covered in royal icing, and since royal icing sets pretty fast, I attached my soccer cupcake toppers as soon as I finished covering each cupcake with green icing. That way, I could get the balls to be attached securely to the cupcakes. In case the green icing sets before you could place your toppers on, simply dab a little green icing at the back of each topper and attach them to the cupcakes. 

• Since my cupcakes were slightly domed and the soccer ball toppers flat, upon attaching them to the cupcakes, they remained flat on the cupcakes making them look as though they were floating on the cupcakes, which added some dimension to the ball toppers.

Make more toppers for contingency

• Because the soccer ball toppers were piped in royal icing and were pretty thin, they can break if not handled carefully. Sometimes they break in the process of being peeled off the parchment paper. Sometimes accidentally dropping them onto the workspace can cause chipping and cracks. So it is always advisable to make more of the toppers than what is needed for the soccer cupcakes to give allowances for any breakages. 

And that is pretty much how I made my soccer cupcakes with edible royal icing ball toppers.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

And here is the football cake that inspired me to create these cupcakes:

Happy decorating 🙂

Soccer ball cupcakes idea