Making a shaped cake can be intimidating especially, a sphere. Having the right sphere cake recipe can be a great place to start. Here I share my two go-to recipes: Vanilla sphere cake recipe and chocolate sphere cake recipe. I use them when I bake my sphere cakes, such as a sports ball cake, teapot cake or even a Cinderella carriage cake.
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Often I get messaged by people asking - what is the best sphere cake recipe? Is it chocolate or vanilla? Which is weird because the choice should not be between vanilla or chocolate. Right? What's important is the density and texture of the recipe. Does that make sense?
I know there are two reasons why people ask me which is the best sphere cake recipe. One is due to the fact that I have a long post that discusses how to make the perfect sphere cake in detail. The second reason is that I have so many cake recipes here on the blog; people don't know which to use! I'd love to say yeah go ahead and use whichever recipe you want. But NO!
By the way, a sphere cake does not have to be a sports cake. There is a lot more you can do with it. Like this carriage below, or even a teapot.
Do I really need to buy a ball pan?
NO. You don't have to buy a professional ball pan for baking a sphere cake. I'm quite sure you have either a Pyrex or stainless steel bowls at home that can be used to bake a cake in the shape of a half dome. Right? Just bake one at a time. And yes, you can keep half the batter while one is baking.
And yet, ball pans are not necessarily expensive. Also, you can do with them more than just bake a sports ball for hubby and sons. For example, you can make a teapot for mother's day and carriage for the granddaughter, or a Pokemon cake for the grandson, or even a disco ball for a sweet 16th birthday. See, those pans can do so much more... Shhh. I have three sizes so I'm just justifying my purchase.
So which is the best sphere cake recipe?
Ideally, for a sphere cake - you need a firm, slightly more dense cake. And yet, not all dense cakes are dry!! A classic sponge cake, for example, is more firm and dense compared to a light sponge or a chiffon cake.
The main ingredient here is butter. Therefore, I highly recommend using a butter-based cake.
- First of all, they have a stronger structure and texture compared to an oil-based cake.
- In addition, when you frost with butter the butter sets, making it easier to work.
- Also, if you frost with ganache - again the chocolate sets making it easier to work.
Most butter cakes will work. And yet I'm going to give you two of my go-to recipes for sphere cakes. I think that they are the best. I know they work great. Since I've lost count of the number of balls and sphere cakes I've done with them recently. It's definitely over 10 in the last year.
You remember this one? If you are interested, I shared a little more details on how I made this cake in my post-Barcelona Soccer Ball Cake
Let's talk about frosting
I know I'm giving you the recipe for the cake, but the frosting you use on your sphere cake recipe is equally important.
Ideally, you can use whatever frosting you want. And yet, if you need a firm ball, I highly recommend either buttercream or ganache for the filling, as well as the frosting. One of my favorites is to use my Velvet American Buttercream recipe for the filling and Ganache on the outside for the frosting. Believe it or not, a soft plastic smoother, or a piece of a clean plastic bottle makes a great tool to smooth the frosting on the outside.
How to use your sphere cakes
Please check out my post - Making a Perfect Sphere Cake - Ball Cake Tutorial.
Step by step instructions
Note: Please note I have reduced one egg in the recipes since I made the video based on my recipe testing - works better.
- Preheat the at 160 C / 320 F.
- Grease, dust or use parchment paper for both ball pans /bowls.
- Sift dry ingredients.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Followed by the dry ingredients (sifted flour mixture).
- Add milk.
- Pour batter equally into the two ball pans.
- Place pans on the center rack of the oven and.
- Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes (depending on your oven).
- Cool in the pan for 10 mins then remove from the ball pans and cool on oven rack further.
Note - Feel free to throw in a few chocolate chips or fruit and nuts. Make sure they are cut small so you can torte the cake evenly later.
What is the best way to fill and prepare the sphere cake shape? In this post, I show you three methods of how to make the perfect sphere cake.
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Printable Recipe
Perfect Sphere Cake Recipe Vanilla or Chocolate Sphere Cake Recipe
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Video
Ingredients
Makes 2 x 6-inch vanilla or chocolate cake
Vanilla Sphere Cake Recipe
- 6 oz (170 g) Unsalted butter (¾ cup, 1 ½ stick) room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) White sugar
- 3 Eggs large
- 2 cups (250 g) All-purpose flour plain flour
- 2 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ cup (120 ml) Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Chocolate Sphere Cake Recipe
- 6 oz (170 g) Unsalted Butter (¾ cup, 1 ½ stick) room temperature
- ½ cup (110 g) Brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) White sugar
- 3 Eggs large
- 1 ½ cup (190 g) All-purpose flour plain flour
- 2 tablespoon (15 g) Cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ cup (120 ml) Milk
- 1 tsp ( ) Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the at 160 C / 320 F.
- Grease and flour (or use parchment paper) for both ball pans/bowls.
- Sift dry ingredients.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Followed by the dry ingredients (sifted flour mixture) and milk.
- Lastly, add the vanilla.
- Pour batter equally into the two ball pans.
- Place pans on the center rack of the oven and
- Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes.
- Cool in the pan for 10 mins then remove from the ball pans and cool on oven rack further.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Gillian Beeby
Hi, I used your recipes, as detailed in some of the comments below but had a problem with the timings. I used a 9in half spherical pan to make a cake which was one half chocolate and the other vanilla. The vanilla cake took twice as long to cook as suggested in your comments below, and whilst tasted amazing, was more dense than the chocolate one and simply fell apart. Any idea why please?
Veena Azmanov
They are both very similar recipes Gillian with the exception that one has cocoa powder and the other none.
They are still delicate cakes and need to be handled carefully. A butter adds stability but they are not very dense cakes.
After all, you want even the novelty cakes to be light, airy, and delicious. Right?
Rocio
Hi Veena, I’m doing my first sphere cake - it will be actually 2 sphere cakes to form a sitting down cat. I need to do 1.5 recipe - how many eggs do you think I should use? 4 or 5? Or 4 full eggs and 1 egg white ? Do you have any tip for how to cover the cake in fondant - mine broke a lot when I practiced the cake, specially at the bottom half of the sphere - is it better to roll the fondant thicker?
Thank you
Veena Azmanov
You can use 1 1/2 eggs and if the eggs are smaller you can use 2 full eggs. You don't want the fondant too thick otherwise it will tear with the weight of the hanging fondant. Similar you don't want it so thin that it tears when stretching. Eventually with practice, you will find the right thickness that works for you.
Cindy
For the sphere vanilla cake recipe since I need to color the batter pink can I just use egg whites and if so how many would I use to replace the 3 whole eggs
Veena Azmanov
Cindy, you can use 6 egg whites instead of 3 full eggs. The cake will be more delicate as eggs add stablity