World Cup inspired football cake
Get ready for some match-day baking fun!
Whether you’re cheering on your team, hosting friends and family or looking for a fun baking birthday cake for the kids, this football-inspired cake is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser. Made with fluffy chocolate sponge, creamy buttercream and plenty of FREE eggs, it’s surprisingly simple to decorate and perfect for creating a little kitchen magic together.
The only question is… will it last until full-time?
PREP TIME: 10 minutes COOK TIME: 15 minutes
Serves SERVES 10 - 12 people
Ingredients
- 250g salted butter, softened
- 250g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 4 large FREE eggs
- 200g self-raising flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp milk
- FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- 150g salted butter, softened
- 300g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- FOR THE DECORATION
- 75g hundreds & thousands
- 75g desiccated coconut
- Green food colouring (preferably paste or gel)
- 75g icing sugar
- Mini football figures
- YOU WILL NEED
- Large baking tin approximately 40 x 30cm, greased & lined with baking paper
- 1 A4 piece of paper
- 1 piping bag
Method
- Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
- Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Crack in the FREE eggs and briefly mix to combine.
- Sieve in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder to the egg mixture before pouring in the milk. Briefly beat together just until a smooth, chocolatey batter is achieved.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking tin and smooth the top evenly using a palette knife. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 13 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to fully cool in the tin. In the meantime, cream together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence to form a smooth buttercream and set aside until the cake has fully cooled.
- Turn the cooled cake out onto a large board and spread the prepared buttercream all over the cake, using a palette knife once again to smooth evenly. Place the piece of A4 paper in the centre of the cake ensuring there is an even boarder of butter cream all the way round.
- Sprinkle the hundreds & thousands onto the exposed buttercream, pressing down gently to ensure they have stuck before carefully removing and discarding the paper.
- In a bowl combine the coconut and a little green colouring to achieve your desired shade of green. When the coconut is completely coated in the colouring, spoon onto the exposed buttercream and press into a rectangle shape to create the pitch.
- In a bowl, sieve in the icing sugar and add a little water - just enough to create a thick, pipeable consistency. Spoon into a piping bag and snip the end. Using the piping bag, draw the white lines of the pitch. It is important that you have pressed the coconut into the buttercream and it has stuck well so ensure the piped icing adheres to the pitch.
- Add your football figures in your desired positions and serve.
