Spartans Birthday Cake (A Football Club Cake)

🧾Supplies Required

• Cake - This was an 8-inch square cake measuring approximately 4 inches high. I used my butter pound cake recipe for the cake. 
• Buttercream - The entire cake was filled and covered in buttercream. 
• Food coloring in orange, black and white - I used Wilton food colors in Orange, Black and Americolor White to tint my buttercream.
• Fondant - Fondant on this cake was used for the Spartans logo. I used Satin Ice in blue , chocolate , orange , black and white .
• Gum paste - I also used gum paste in this project albeit very little, for the lettering on the cake.
• Gold edible dust and lemon extract - I mixed the gold paint in the lemon extract to paint my gum paste letters.
• Sugar craft knife - I used this knife to cut the Spartans logo on the cake.
• Needle tool - This was used to mark the diagonal lines on the cake before piping out the buttercream zigzags.
• Piping tip number 18 and disposable piping bags - I used Wilton star tip number 18 for all the piping work on the cake.
• FMM block alphabet cutters - This was for the lettering on the cake.
• Fondant extruder tool - I used this tool to make the tiny black and white borders for the logo.
• Star plunger cutter set - This was used to cut out all the stars on the cake.
• Shortening - this was the glue for this project and I used it to stick the different parts of the Spartans logo together.
• Ruler - I used a normal ruler to guide me in marking the diagonal lines on the cake for buttercream piping.
• Spartans logo template - I made this myself, based on the logo of my son's football team.

👩‍🍳How to Make

Step 1: Prepare the Logo Template

I started by getting the Spartans logo template ready. To make the logo, I took a photo of my son's football team logo and enlarged it on the computer to the size I wanted it on the cake with this tutorial on how to resize images for cake decorating.

Once I had the image ready, I traced it onto a parchment paper and it was ready to be used as a template for cutting out my fondant. 

Step 2: Prepare the Cake

Next was the birthday cake itself. Once baked and completely cooled, I leveled and filled it with buttercream and then crumb coated it, also with buttercream. 

And then I mixed my icing colors and put them aside together with my piping bag and piping tip. 

To start with, I used a ruler and my needle tool and marked the diagonal lines on the cake. 

Step 3: Make the Logo in Fondant

I rolled some light blue fondant and used my paper template to trace out the shield outline of the logo, including the banner at the lower end of the logo which carried the name Spartans. These were cut as separate pieces.  And then I rolled some brown fondant (white fondant mixed with chocolate fondant) and black fondant and cut out the Spartan image using my sugar craft knife. 

I carefully lifted all the pieces and placed them on the birthday cake, starting with the shield shape. Before putting on the rest, I used my extruder tool to pipe out thin rolls of white and black strips and placed them around the shield as a border. Next, I added the banner and then the Spartan image. I also added a thin black border around the banner piece. Before attaching the banner and the Spartan image, I brushed a little shortening on the shield. 

Next, using my star plunger cutter, I cut out 4 stars (in two different sizes) and added them to the logo. And with that, the logo work was complete. 

Step 4: Complete the Diagonal Buttercream Piping

Next was the buttercream piping. Using the lines I marked earlier as a guide, I used my star piping tip to pipe out closed zigzag patterns in orange, row by row on the top of the birthday cake.

For the sides, using similar piping pattern, I alternated the orange color with white and black. And I finished off the piping with a black rope border all around the birthday cake. The border was also piped using the same #18 star piping tip. 

Step 5: Make the Fondant Banner on the Cake Board

Once piping work was done, I went on to finish the cake decoration by adding the banner on the cake board that carried the birthday message. This was cut out in white fondant.

For the side frills, I used light orange fondant (orange and white fondant mixed). I cut out 2 rectangle pieces and used my sugar craft knife to make close-by incisions on one end of each piece to make them look like frills. I attached these to the ends of the banner. 

Step 6: Attach the Letters to the Banner

And then I used my FMM alphabet cutter to cut out the letters using gum paste. I used white gum paste and then painted the letters in gold edible paint. Once the paint has dried, I attached the letters. This was both on the banner on the cake board as well as on the Spartans logo.

And finally, I added 2 stars that were cut in the same orange I used for the frills on the birthday message banner. 

With that, the Spartans birthday cake was complete.