Ethan's birthday cake

This year Ethan requested a football birthday cake. A friend of mine gave me a bunch of cake pans and I was happy to discover a football shaped pan. I was excited to give it a try so I mixed up the cake the day before. Unfortunately, because of the shape of the pan (no user error of course!), the edges of the football burned and the center of the cake did not bake through all the way. So, I thought I'd try it again and try and bake it differently in the oven. Second time around: also a flop. So, I scrapped the whole plan and went with a new one. I baked a 9x13 cake and frosted it:


I drew lines all over it so I had an idea of how to space out a football field on it (I didn't even try to do 100 yards!). Then I started with the green grass:


I took a break to take a picture because I had a hand cramp. :) Once I regained the use of my hand I finished the grass and added green "grass" along the sides.


Next I mixed up a little purple (I was excited to finally have a reason to use purple frosting on a cake!) and made the end fields up in the team colors of Ethan's favorite team (at least it's his favorite team this year!).


Then it was time for the football. I played around a little bit with a tip and had fun making it. I looked at pictures of footballs to make sure I added the lines on it correctly!



After that it needed the yard lines to look like a real football field. Like I said earlier, I didn't even attempt to make it 100 yards.


To finish it off I added the words--Vikings and Happy Birthday to my boy. In hindsight I wish I had switched colors for the happy birthday part, but I was happy with how it turned out.


When Ethan came home from school and saw the cake he announced "that's just what I wanted!". Just what I needed to hear!