Ball Cake, Day 3

Are you ready for your Frosting Arm Workout?  Mixing color paste into your frosting is equivalent to 10 minutes of arm strength training, so roll up your sleeves and feel the burn.  You will need:

3 cups of butter cream frosting (homemade or store bought, up to you)

12 drops of yellow food coloring gel (not that watery stuff at supermarket, go to Michael's or Joanne's, again I use my cake supply store)

15 drops of black food coloring gel

2 glass bowls, 2 silicone spatulas, 2 pieces of plastic wrap

Mix 1/2 cup of frosting with black color in glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Using the silicone spatula will allow you to scrap the bottom of the bowl and get any white frosting left behind. Mix it well. It will look a dark charcoal color, but like paint, it darkens when it dries.  The remaining frosting will be mixed with your yellow.  Cover the glass bowl with plastic wrap.  If any of you ever do try this, tell me your arms don't burn mixing and mixing.  Set these aside.  For this next part, your will need:

pencil and piece of wax paper

tooth pick and scissors

small frosting spatula (your local craft store has them in the baking section)

1 piece of plastic wrap

The mold set came with a volleyball template.  A volleyball and water polo ball have the same lines, so I'm using it.  I placed a piece of wax paper on top of my pattern and traced it with a pencil.  Cut out perimeter when done and set aside. 
Spread a thin coat of yellow butter cream over the entire ball.  Begin at the bottom and work your way up.  This doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, trust me.

Now, take your wax paper cut out and place it on the ball and with a toothpick outline the shape onto your cake.  You'll have to eyeball the inner lines.  You can do it, it's not hard.  Keep going around the ball until you have covered the ball with the pattern.
It is tough to see all the lines on the picture below, but they aren't suppose to be deep, just deep enough for you to see the pattern.  Yes, it is still in the ugly duckling stage.
Take the plastic wrap off the black bowl of frosting and place it flat on counter top 

with clean side down. Scrap all your black into the center of the plastic and make a 

frosting tootsie roll, like below. Do the same with your yellow. Each tootsie is no

more than 1 cup of frosting, so you will need another piece of plastic wrap for a second

yellow tootsie. Tuck the ends in like shown on the tootsie in front. Place in frig.
That's all I had time for yesterday. Today, I will complete the water polo ball.

If you are going to make a volleyball, then you only need to mix your black as the rest

is white.