Football Helmet Cakes with Marshmallow Fondant

When I asked my son what kind of cake he wanted for his 6th Birthday he had a specific request.  He wanted a BYU helmet on one side, an Arizona Cardinals helmet on the other side and a football in the middle.

“Great! How am I going to do that?” I thought to myself, yet, I knew it was possible and I was up for the challenge! Call me crazy but it sounded, dare I say, FUN even, and a perfect excuse to play with marshmallow fondant again! I’ve done a few fondant cakes in the past so I have a great marshmallow fondant recipe that I have adapted. Just in case I began to doubt myself or my abilities at any point I turned to the Google gods to make sure all  my ideas for the cake were do-able and I found a nice tutorial to work from.  Of course, my ideas were awesome ;o)… and maybe needed just a little tweaking.

I recently got a tip from a grocery store baker on how to make a cake mix more delicious, moist, and sturdy for fondant… simply replace half the water with the same amount of sour cream. I will never leave the sour cream out again – Its that good!

So I baked my helmet cakes in oven safe bowls and the football in a bread pan at 310° for probably about 45 minutes or an hour. After letting them cool I probably should have put them in the freezer for a little while so things weren’t so crumbly, but remember me? I’m impatient! so I began to cut the cakes to my desired shapes. I quickly frosted them with a chocolate frosting  and moved on to the fondant.

Fondant takes some time, but really isn’t hard and usually gleans impressive results. I roll the fondant out larger than the cake and lay it on top of the cake, adjust it and smooth it out so there are no wrinkles in it, and use a pizza cutter to make nice clean cuts around the bottom edge. Another nice tip I picked up this time around was to make a long snake of white fondant and attach around the bottom edge of the helmet to cover any unsightly edges.

Cutting designs out requires some care, but is really where all the creativity comes in.

The work is well worth the effort. Be prepared to be the receiver of lots of Wow’s and Holy Cow’s and “How did you’s”… because your six year old and his friends will think you are totally awesome, and maybe even some of the moms will think so too! But really the greatest pat on the back is to look at your creation and say to yourself, “I did that!,” see the satisfied smile on your little boy’s face, and then dig in and enjoy that scrumptious little piece of art work!