Wilton Football Cake

• If you're looking for a very easy way to make a football cake with no cutting and minimal decorating, buy a football-shaped cake mold. Prepare one standard two-layer cake mix according to the package instructions and bake the cake in the football pan.

  Remove the cake from the pan a few minutes after it comes out of the oven and let it cool on a rack with the design facing up. Tint and separate brown and white butter cream icing into two bowls while you wait for the cake to cool. Use pre-made white butter cream icing or make your own with a simple recipe. Color most of the white icing brown with gel food coloring and mix the color in until it's fully incorporated.

  Use a flat spatula to spread brown icing all over the cake once it has cooled. Load white icing into a pastry bag and fit the bag with a wide, flat decorating tip. Pipe wide stripes onto the top and bottom of the football cake with the tip. Change to a narrower tip, and pipe on the stitching seams in the middle of the football.

Cut-Out Football Cake

• Decorate this cake in the same way as the Wilton football cake, but bake and prepare it differently. Use a 9-inch round cake pan to bake the cake and spray the pan with cooking spray before putting the batter in the pan. Prevent the bottom of the cake from sticking to the pan by placing a parchment-paper circle in the pan. Pour the batter in and bake the cake according to recipe instructions.

  Let the cake cool for five minutes when it comes out of the oven and transfer it from the pan onto a cooling rack. After the cake has cooled to room temperature, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm its structure. Remove the cake from the freezer, take off the plastic wrap, and use a sharp, serrated knife to cut off the two edges of the cake in curved half-moon shapes to form the middle of the cake into a football shape. Brush off any crumbs. Decorate the cake as usual after you have cut out the football shape.

Football Field Cake

• Prepare and bake a 9-inch-by-13-inch sheet cake. Un-mold the cake after it has cooled for five minutes and let it finish cooling on a rack. Tint a bag of sweetened, shredded coconut and most of a batch of white butter cream icing green with gel coloring, then use a flat spatula to coat the cake with the green icing. Sprinkle the green coconut on top, and add field details and yard lines with white icing and a decorating tip.