Water Polo Themed Birthday Cake

I really enjoyed making this themed birthday cake  for my boyfriend's brother, particularly because I knew very little about water polo before I started!  

Invented in the late 19th century, water polo began as a demonstration of strength and swimming skill. Men's water polo was introduced as a team sport in the modern Olympic games in 1900. The present-day game involves teams of seven players  with a water polo ball similar in size to a football.

The game is fast and furious and sounds pretty violent! Apparently "wedgies" - where players pull up an opponent's swimming costume to cause eye-watering discomfort - are so commonplace in the women's game that some teams, including the Spanish, have taken to giving themselves wedgies before matches in order to prevent them during play... 

Perhaps my little description has filled you with enthusiasm to go and take up water polo as a hobby. However, if like me, giving yourself a wedgie does not particularly appeal, why not just make a nice cake representation of the game and eat it in comfort instead?! 

~
 Water Polo Birthday Cake

You will need:

For the cake:

• 400g self-raising flour            
• 400g margarine          
• 400g caster sugar       
• 6 eggs
• A little milk (if required)        
• 13” cake board           

For the filling:

• 140g/5oz butter, softened      
• 280g/10oz icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk (if required)
• Strawberry jam           

For decoration:

• Black food colouring felt tip
• Red food colouring felt tip
• 50g Green fondant icing
• 75g Red fondant icing
• 600g White fondant icing
• 50g Orange fondant icing
• Cocktail sticks
• 1 yellow gumball
• Blue gel food colouring
• Small plastic football goals - (I managed to get mine from Poundland toy section and although they are very small in proportion to the size of the players, it didn't matter too much. You might also be able to find them in specialist cake shops for football cakes)

Instructions:

1). Prepare the cake.

1. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Line two large rectangular cake tins (I used 27cm/22cm) tin with baking parchment
3. Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale. Use an electric hand mixer if you have one.
4. Beat in the eggs.
5. Sift over the flour and fold in using a large metal spoon.
6. The mixture should be of a dropping consistency; if it is not, add a little milk.
7. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
9. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool.
   

2). Prepare the butter cream.

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft.
2. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
3. Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth.
4. Beat in the rest of the milk, if necessary, to loosen the mixture to a spreading consistency.
   

3). Stick the cake to the board using a little of the buttercream

• Fill the overlap between the two layers with a layer of buttercream and a layer a jam.

4). Ice the cake with fondant 

If you're unsure of how to do this stage there are some really good youtube tutorials giving demonstrations.

1. Knead a about 500g of white fondant icing until it’s smooth and pliable.
2. Dust a work surface with icing sugar, and roll the icing out, smooth-side down until it is 3-5mm thick and large enough to cover the top and sides of the cake.
3. Taking the buttercream you have just prepared, carefully spread a thin layer over all sides of the cake with a spatula.
4. Carefully roll the icing onto your rolling pin, then unroll it on surface of the cake.
5. Smooth the icing across the top of the cake and carefully ease it smooth along the sides.
6. Trim the excess icing, leaving a small border and press smooth against all surfaces of the cake.
7. Leave the icing to set for 2-3 hours before decorating.

5). Making the players & ball

1. Combine a small amount of red and orange fondant icing with half of the remaining white fondant.
2. Knead until smooth and pliable and the colour is uniform. This is going to be the skin colour of the players, so adjust by adding more of any colour if necessary.
3. Use half this amount to produce 14 identical sized ball shapes. (The remainder will be used to create arms later and should be wrapped in clingfilm until then to prevent drying out).
4. Divide the ball shapes up into two groups of 7.
5. Taking the green icing, make 7 small circles (about the shape of a 2p piece) about 3mm thick and dot with a little water. Press each of these onto the top of each ball to create a coloured helmet.
6. Repeat with the red icing for the other 7 balls.
   
7. Add tiny pea sized amounts of fondant to each side of the helmet in the same colour to make the ears. Attach with a small amount of water. 
8. Next, dot each of the ball shapes with two eyes using the black food colouring felt tips.
9. Add mouths with the red food colouring pen.
10. Finally, take the yellow gumball and decorate it with the black food colouring felt tip to look like a water polo ball. My version can be seen in the photo above. 
    
11. Leave the players and ball to dry out and firm up until they are needed later.

6). Making the pool

1. Add a few drops of blue food colouring to the remainder of the buttercream to create the “water.”
2. Using a spatula, spread the buttercream all over the top of the cake, leaving an inch border all around the edge of the cake.
3. Next, roll out the remaining white fondant to about 5mm thick, then cut into equal-sized square “tiles.” (I used a pizza cutter to cut a grid into the icing to do this)
4. Dot the back of each of the tiles with a little water and then stick them around the edge of the cake.

7). Final decoration

1. Arrange each of the plastic goals at either end of the pool.
2. Take each of the “players” and press a cocktail stick to about 1cm depth into them. Then taking the other end, press into the cake at various positions.
3. Now take the excess fondant in the skin shade made earlier and make a number of small sausage shapes – these will be the arms of the players.
4. Arrange the arms under the players heads in different positions (see final image for guidance).
5. Finally, press a cocktail stick into the gumball “ball,” which was made earlier and stick the other end into the cake.

~

Now your waterpolo cake is complete!

 Love, Chloe xx 

~  Follow me on Twitter @CrumbsCakeBlog ~