How to Make a Gluten Free Bowling Ball Cake

I bet you are wondering why I am making a post on how to make a bowling ball cake. I was wondering the same thing when I was making it.  My son turned 8 a couple days ago and we decided to throw him a bowling party.  When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he said that he wanted a bowling ball cake. When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, I really meant what flavor he wanted but since I love him so much I decided to give it a go.  I got a ball mold off of amazon and it worked really well! I was really skeptical when I bought it because things like this never work for me but it did.  It was easy to use and fairly straight forward.  The only thing that I thought was weird was that I had to bake the cake like twice as long. It might be because the bowls make the cake deeper so it needed more time to bake in the middle but keep that in mind when trying to make it.

When thinking about how best to make this cake, the frosting was kind of stumping me.  I am not the best at frosting a cake and I wanted it to look really smooth and pretty.  I thought the best thing to use would be fondant because it would give me the finish that I was looking for.  I have never used fondant before and so I thought that it would be a good idea to not only use it but to make my own.  I think that I may have been a little too ambitious with it because I also thought that I could do a marble fondant.  I don't like to do too many steps at one time because having 3 little boys I don't have tons of time to devote to making things all at once. I thought that I could do the fondant a couple days ahead of time but it didn't really work out too well.  The fondant was a pain in the butt to work with. I made a marshmallow fondant with the recipe from Bigger Bolder Baking. I liked the recipe and that it was easy to follow. I just ended up using like 6 times the amount of powdered sugar.  I don't know how it would work with the amount that is listed in the ingredients.  It just was so sticky and stuck to everything. My hands, my counter tops were all covered in marshmallow fondant.  It seemed like the only thing that helped was more sugar.
After adding a ton of sugar it was actually pretty nice to work with and we tried to do the marbling.  It worked pretty well but then I tried to store it in the refrigerator.  After getting it out a couple days later. I let it sit out on the counter to come back to room temperature.  I then tried to roll it out and it just cracked and fell apart.  I tried to add a little bit of water and it just became an awful mess. The colors started to bleed into each other and it just because impossible to work with.  After starting to panic a little bit I decided to scrap it and start over.  That was the best decision because making a second batch because a lot easier after kind of having a clue as to what I was doing. I decided to keep the colors separate and just add some cut outs to give the cake some decoration.
I was really happy with how it turned out and most importantly my son loved it. He thought it looked amazing and that is really the most important thing to me.  Not only did it look pretty good but it tasted amazing.  He loves chocolate and requested a chocolate cake so I included the recipe of the cake that I used and the vanilla buttercream frosting which was also amazing.  All the kids at his party loved it so much and it just went perfectly with the bowling theme.  This whole process was definitely an experiment and not all of my experiments go well but I am happy to say this one went the way I wanted with only a few bumps along the road.
Sometimes it is hard being on the gluten free diet, to find fun cakes and things for birthday parties. Even though my kids are not gluten free, I only bake gluten free and so the only desserts that I make are gluten free.  I like to make my kid's birthday cakes and such so it has been a process to learn how to do all of this.  What I can say is, if I was able to make a cake like this then you will be able to as well.  You have to keep an open mind and realize that mistakes will happen but that sometimes you need to just roll with it.  Make sure to check out my videos down below to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more great recipes and product reviews.
Yield: serves 10 to 12

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

The perfect chocolate cake that is so easy to make using a gluten free chocolate cake mix. The creamy vanilla frosting make this cake the perfect combination.
prep time: 40 minscook time: 20 minstotal time: 60 mins

ingredients:

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
  • 1 package (15 ounces) chocolate gluten free cake mix
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • pinch of ground cinnamon
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 3 tablespoons milk, or more as needed
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

instructions

Chocolate Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9-inch round cake pans with vegetable oil spray. Dust pans with cocoa powder or rice flour and shake out the excess. Set pans aside.
  2. Place cake mix, buttermilk, oil, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are just incorporated. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat the batter until smooth, about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Divide batter evenly between the 2 prepared cake pans, smoothing the tops down with a rubber spatula. Place pans in the oven side by side.
  3. Bake the cake layers until the top springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, about 20-25 minutes. Transfer cake pans to wire racks and let cool for 5 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of each cake layer and loosen the cakes from pans. Let cake cool completely, about 20 minutes.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
  1. Place butter in bowl of mixer and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes.  This will make the butter light and fluffy. Stop machine, scrape down the sides and add sifted powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat on low speed until the ingredients are incorporated. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat frosting until light and fluffy. Beat in up to 1 tablespoon more milk if frosting is too stiff. Use immediately.
Assemble cake
  1. Transfer one cake layer right side up to the serving plate. Spread the top with about 1 cup of the frosting. place second cake layer right side up on top of the first layer and frost the top  and side of the cake, working with smooth, clean strokes.
  2. If you want to keep the cake crumbs out of the frosting you can freeze the cake layers and frost the cake while they are frozen or you can put a thin coat of frosting on the cake and then chill for 10-15 minutes before applying the rest of the frosting.  This will help give your cake a beautiful finish.

NOTES:

To make dairy free, substitute water or soy milk for the buttermilk in the cake. For the frosting, use margarine instead of the butter and almond milk or orange juice instead of the milk.
Created using The Recipes Generator

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