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.
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.
Table of Content
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 (pin)
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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Recipe
Perfect Sphere Cake Recipe Vanilla or Chocolate Sphere Cake Recipe
Print Pin RateDescription
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 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp 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 tbsp (15 g) Cocoa powder
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp 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
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
Marion
Hi Veena... i need to make an 8in diameter hemisphere cake for a soccer theme - should i go with the full recipe for the 8in cake - also, how much fondant do you think i would need to cover, also, can i use SMBC for the filling and ganache for the frosting - if yes, how much qty would you suggest i make
Veena Azmanov
Hey Marion. Yes, you will need an 8-inch cake but you will also have some trimmings later as you fill the cake. You will need at least 1 kg to cover the cake. Yes, you can use SMBC for filling if you enjoy good weather otherwise go ganache all the way for stability. You will need half the SMBC recipe for just filling (3 egg whites) and about 500 grams of cake decorators chocolate ganache.
Marion
Thank you so much Veena, i think I will go with ganache frosting and a nutella spread filling
Radhika Dossa
Hey veena
Desperately need to know how to make a half sphere 8" cake as per your chocolate sphere cake recipe. Help please. .raadhika from India
Veena Azmanov
Not sure I understand your question. You need this tutorial? How to make a sphere cake
Kate
Hi,
thank you for sharing your recipe. I'd like to bake a hemisphere cake in an 8" pan. it will take approx 6 1/4 cups of batter. How much batter is in your recipe?
How should I divide the ingredients' proportions for that? Should. I just make 0.75 of your recipe? How would I divided eggs then? I can make more batter and then just measure as much as I need but would like to make sure I'll have enough.
Would appreciate your advice.
Thanks
Veena Azmanov
This makes 2 x 6-inch pans - you can double the recipe for 2 x 8-inch pans.
Louise Moss
I’d like to try the chocolate cake recipe for a 9” sphere cake. Would one quantity of ingredients be enough for one half of the sphere? How long would I need to bake it for?
Veena Azmanov
Yes, one quantity would work for a 9-inch half sphere. It would take from 80 to 90 mins.
Wrap the outside of the pan with wet paper hand towels in foil. This will prevent the outside from drying out while the middle is cooking.
Check with a skewer in the center for doneness. (if you don't wrap the pan it will cook in about 70 to 80 mins
Rasha
Hi Veena
I haven’t made this yet but I’m hoping to adapt it to make a lady bug cake for my sons 5th ‘mini COVID-19 party’ we’re having (we’re in lockdown here in Melbourne Australia so want to make it fun for my son as it’s just us for his bday!)
Would I need to half the recipe if u just need half a sphere?
Also is the chocolate cake recipe you have here as ‘chocolatey’ as your sheet cake?
I love that this cake doesn’t have too much sugar but at the same time I’d like something quite chocolatey as I’ll be doing a peanut butter cream cheese icing on top!
Thanks so much
Veena Azmanov
Rasha. Happy Birthday to your son. Yes, this cake is similar to the sheet cake - chocolaty - but a bit denser for the support. This is not a big cake but you can half the recipe if you want.
Peanut butter is a strong flavor so I think it will still be the stronger of the two flavors once frosted.
Rasha
Thanks so much Veena I’ll let you know how I go!
Rasha
Hi Veena
Just letting you know I made the cake and it turned out great - lovely flavour - I added a bit less sugar and used coconut sugar instead of brown sugar and it was still lovely - It was a tiny bit dry but would that have been the less sugar or perhaps I cooked it for too long! - I turned it into a lady bird for my son using peanut butter cream cheese icing and he loved it! Thanks for your help!
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Rasha. I am happy to hear that it was a success