Z as in Zebra

Before football season even began this year, OU was on my mind. As you can imagine, just thinking of OU is a disturbing idea in our household, as I am from Nebraska (Go Huskers!) and my hubby is a huge OSU fan. But sometimes you make sacrifices to help a friend, and since my buddy Nick was getting married and wanted an OU groom’s cake, think of OU I did.

I’m more of a golfer than a footballer, so I found this sweet photo online that I could use to get the proportions of the design fairly accurate.

After baking two chocolate layers and stacking them, I carved them into a football shape using my trusty bread knife and set to the task of icing the whole thing.

Here’s a glimpse of the base coat.

I used homemade marshmallow fondant to construct the laces. I was really pleased with how well they turned out. I also used strips of fondant for the stripes on either end of the ball (not shown, see below).

Next, I used piped stars to create the OU logo (while simultaneously attempting not to feel like a traitor to the real Big Red back in NE. )

To finish off the edges of the cake, I added some green ‘grass’.

I was really pleased with the final result. I later found out that Nick and Mary received lots of compliments on this cake at the wedding reception–the main one being that it was even better than their professionally-made wedding cake. Wow! I was flattered to hear that!

Nick and Mary, thank you for allowing me to be a special part of your big day. All of God’s blessings and happiness to you both!

–Abbi