Football Cake with Chocolate Ganache
A deeply chocolate loaf cake carved into a football shape, draped in silky matte ganache, and finished with vanilla buttercream laces. No fondant, all flavor.
Equipment
- 9x5-inch loaf pan
- Long Serrated Knife
- Offset spatula
- Piping Bag with Round Tip
- Sheet Pan
- Wire cooling rack
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup hot coffee
For the Ganache
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate (chopped)
- 1 cup heavy cream
For the Laces (Buttercream)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened)
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with butter and dust with cocoa powder (not flour, to avoid white streaks on the dark cake).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt until uniform with no lumps.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, oil, and eggs together until smooth.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk gently until just combined. The batter will be thick.
- Add the hot coffee and whisk slowly until the batter is smooth and liquid — it should look like a thin milkshake. If it's still thick, add a tablespoon more hot water.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50–55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cake cools, make the ganache: Place the chopped chocolate in a heat-safe bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just begins to simmer (small bubbles around the edge — not a rolling boil). Pour the hot cream over the chocolate; let sit undisturbed for 3 minutes. Stir slowly from the center outward until smooth and glossy. Let cool to room temperature — it should be thick enough to coat a spoon but still pourable.
- Once the cake is completely cool, level the domed top with a serrated knife to create a flat surface. Flip the cake upside down (the flat bottom becomes the top of the football). Trim the four corners at a slight curve to round them into the classic football oval shape — remove about an inch from each corner.
- Place the carved cake on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Using an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of room-temperature ganache over the entire cake (crumb coat). Chill for 20 minutes until firm to the touch.
- Pour the remaining ganache over the chilled cake. Use the offset spatula to gently coax it over the sides and smooth the top. The ganache should drape and self-level. Chill again for at least 30 minutes to set.
- Make the buttercream laces: Beat the butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together until smooth and stiff. Load into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe a straight line down the center of the cake, starting slightly inside one end and stopping slightly inside the other. Then pipe 6–8 short perpendicular lines across that center line, evenly spaced. (Use a toothpick to draw a faint guide line if needed.)
- Serve at room temperature. Remove from the fridge 45 minutes before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Notes
Make ahead: The cake can be baked and the ganache made up to 2 days ahead. Assemble (without laces) and refrigerate. Pipe the laces within 6 hours of serving for best appearance. The un-ganached carved cake freezes for up to 1 month — wrap tightly in plastic wrap and foil, thaw overnight in the fridge before ganaching.
Tips: Ganache temperature is critical — too warm and it slides off, too cold and it clumps. Room temperature (pourable gravy consistency) is perfect. Use a serrated knife with long, gentle strokes for smooth carving. The crumb coat is non-negotiable to prevent crumbs in the final ganache. For a dairy-free version, use dairy-free dark chocolate and full-fat coconut cream (solid part only); for the laces, use dairy-free butter. For gluten-free, substitute all-purpose flour with 1:1 gluten-free baking flour.