Sand Volleyball Cake

It's been another busy week/weekend at the Lombardo house.  We spent a good part of last week just trying to get back into our routine after being in Colorado.  Then on Thursday and Friday, Mom, Dad and Grace were in town on there way back to Ohio.  Joe got to go to a Kansas City Chiefs game on Friday night, then I spent most of Saturday working on this cake while Joe worked on the outside of our house.  I made this sand volleyball cake to celebrate my sand volleyball team's win of our most recent season.  We play multiple seasons throughout the summer and this Sunday was an off-week between seasons so we hosted a game night at our house to celebrate our recent championship.  I promised the team a volleyball cake so I had to deliver :)

Start to finish, this cake probably took 5 hours.  I had a little bit of a hard time covering the ball with fondant and making the volleyball pattern, but in the end I was happy with the result.  Of course, after the cake was complete I remembered that there was a volleyball template that came with my ball cake pan.  I was really kicking myself for that one.  When I cut out some of the white fondant to place the yellow panels on the ball, I was left with lots of cracks that were not so nice looking.  So I took a cue from what Joe was doing on the outside of our house and I "caulked" the fondant seams with icing then smoothed them out.  It made a huge difference and I was MUCH happier with the final look.  The "sand" was crushed cinnamon graham crackers and the cake was chocolate with vanilla icing, so I was hoping it would taste kind of like a s'more :)  I'm not sure it tasted like that in the end, but it was good.  I brought the leftovers to work and they were gone in no time.  Here are a couple more pictures of the finished product!

I drew a circle in the "sand" because we always draw one in the middle of the court when we're practicing.  You're not supposed to let the ball land in the circle.  Oops :) 

I have a few blog posts on backlog that I'm waiting to share with y'all, but I just need to sit down and write them!  Be on the lookout for some tasty braided pesto bread and to finally see that silly dresser that I've mentioned a few times.  For now Joe and I are trying to enjoy the awesome temperatures that we've finally gotten here.  We're not the only ones enjoying it though... We opened a few windows and we can here the neighborhood kids screaming, hitting things, blowing horns and just generally being obnoxious.  Oh well, it's just nice to not have 100+ degree weather.  I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the last bit of summer!