Tennis Court Cake

I made this for my Father-in-law who plays tennis daily.  Last year I made a tennis racket, this year the tennis court, next year...hmmm, it'll most likely be tennis related.  I've been wanting to make a pair of sneakers but didn't have any time and I had to do a much simpler cake.

Update: I did make him a sneaker cake and the tutorial can be found under, Tennis Shoe Cake.

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I used a loaf pan to bake the Chocolate Sour Cream Cake (8"x4") then carved the sides to straighten it down (and not tapered like the pan).  Covered the cake in MMF and filled it with Oreo IMBC - my new favorite filling, it's so delicious:  Just make IMBC then blend in some finely crushed Oreo cookies...delish!  See how I make it under this post, Super Mario Bros Cake.

For the net, I mixed green fondant, that I used to cover the cake with, and marbled white fondant, scored the grid pattern across it and then dusted it lightly with moss green petal dust to help make it pop.  I then used a sewing stitching wheel over the white bands on the net, then let the net dry overnight so it would stand up nicely on the cake.

The tennis balls were about 1/4" round and I used a round piping tip to press in the markings around the tennis ball...I made 41 fondant tennis balls!!!  I doesn't look like that many but once you start placing them around the cake and Happy Birthday lettering, they added up fast!

So here it is, a very small and simple cake for just a few of our family to enjoy for dessert.