The last games of the LCS Summer Split have been played out for both Europe and North America, and the twelve teams to make it through to their respective regional playoffs have been decided. With every team desperate to make it to the World Championships, everything will be put on the line at gamescom and PAX Prime. No doubt you’ll be fervently cheering for your team to make it to Worlds, but do you know what the best way to show your team spirit is? Well, with cake of course!
I’m a firm believer that any social gathering can be improved by cake. So, whether you’re attending a viewing party, getting together with some friends to watch the games or simply watching on your own, these League of Legends eSports mini cakes won’t go amiss! You can also opt to turn these into cupcakes by following my tutorial here - the templates provided will fit perfectly. If you’re not an experienced baker, I would recommend making the cupcakes as they’re much simpler and faster to make!
Making the cake
If you’re pushed for time, you can simply use a store-bought loaf of angel food or madeira cake and a cookie cutter to cut the layers from that. Here is my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which I used to make these cakes (recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker):
- 330g all-purpose flour (3 cups)
- 550g granulated sugar (2 ¾ cups)
- 140g cocoa powder (1 cup + 1 tbsp)
- 1 tbsp of baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsps of baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsps of salt
- 3 eggs
- 365g of buttermilk (1 ½ cups)
- 350g of hot (not boiling) coffee (1 ½ cups)
- 150g vegetable oil (¾ cup)
- 4 tsps of vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F)
- Line and grease two 9x11 inch cake pans (I baked it in one tin, but it took a long time to bake so I would recommend baking it in two pans, or one after the other)
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients, add the coffee last and stir constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry in three additions, making sure you fully incorporate the liquid after each addition - your batter should be extremely runny after all the liquid is added
- Divide the batter between your two cake tins and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean
You will also need a batch of whatever buttercream you feel comfortable making. I’m using pink buttercream here because I had some left over from a birthday cake I was making. For a standard buttercream recipe, a double batch of this will suffice. You can also use store-bought frosting if you prefer.
Cutting out the templates
In order to cut out the logos, you will need:
- Team logo templates
- Craft knife
- Paring knife
- Rolling pin
- Silicone mat or cornstarch
- 40g each of white, light gray, yellow, red, orange and blue fondant
If you’ve never used templates to cut out fondant, I would recommend starting with some of the easier logos to get into the swings of things, such as the Fnatic or CLG logos. The basic technique is the same for each logo, but there are some additional instructions included with the templates for more guidance.
- Cut out the template
- Knead the fondant and roll out
- Roughly cut around the template, rolling the excess fondant in a ball and covering with plastic wrap
- Using your least dominant hand, anchor the template in place and cut around it using the craft knife - small cuts work better than dragging the knife through the fondant like a pen
- If there are long straight lines, such as in the TSM logo, a paring knife might yield cleaner cuts
- Neaten up the edges by going over the edge of the logo with the blade of your knife
- You may also use your hands to neaten up the edges by pressing your fingers into the edge of the shape
Assembling the cakes
To assemble the cakes, you will need:
- Serrated knife
- Small offset spatula
- 68mm cookie cutter
- Black modelling chocolate/fondant
Assembly instructions
- When your cake is completely cooled, use a 68mm cookie cutter (or something similar) to cut out twelve circles of cake, positioning each circle as close as possible to the next to ensure you have enough cake. You can use the scraps to make cake pops or just save them as baker’s perks!
- Using a serrated knife, slice each circle of cake into two layers
- Do this for your second layer of cake
- You will now have 48 circles of cake (as I baked my cake in one tray, I cut my cake into three layers)
- Using a small offset spatula, spread some buttercream on the first layer of cake and place the second layer on top (my buttercream hadn’t fully come to room temperature from the fridge so it dragged up a lot of crumbs)
- Continue doing this until you have finished layering your cake
- Lightly frost the outside of your cake, smoothing the buttercream as best as you can
- Place all your frosted cakes in the fridge for half an hour
I used modelling chocolate to cover my cakes as it tastes infinitely better than fondant, but it tears a lot more easily. You can also opt to simply cut a circle of modelling chocolate or fondant and place your logos on there. If you choose to do this, you will not need to frost the outside of your cakes.
If you are using fondant, you can roll out your black fondant large enough to cover the top and the sides and simply drape it over your cake. I did this to begin with, but I found it easier to roll my modelling chocolate into a rectangle, the height of which matched the height of the cake.
Covering your cake
- Roll your modelling chocolate into a long rectangle, the length of which is slightly greater than the circumference of your cake (23cm for my cakes) and the height of which equal to the height of your cake
- Place your cake on its side, at one end of the rectangle and roll it in the modelling chocolate, covering its sides
- Trim off any excess
- Cut a circle of modelling chocolate using the cookie cutter and place on top
- Brush the logos with a damp paintbrush and adhere to the cakes
I found these cakes a little tricky to make, but if you’re up for a bit of a challenge you should definitely try these out. You can also choose to make one big cake for the team you support, and you can download the Photoshop file for the templates here so you can scale a logo up if you want to.
With only from three teams from each region making it to the World Championships, everything will be put on the line at gamescom and PAX Prime. Catch the European regionals from the 13th of August and the North American ones from the 29th of August!
You can also use the designs with my previous article on eSports cupcakes if you prefer those over mini cakes!