Gluten Free Football Cake and Cookies

It’s Super Bowl season, and even if you can’t get to the big game, there’s no reason not to celebrate the occasion in the best possible way: with a delicious gluten free football cake and gluten free football cookies!

Jules’ Gluten Free From-Scratch 2-Layer Cake Recipe

This gluten free cake is delicious but also remarkably easy to cut and shape into anything you like. It’s also dense enough to hold any shape, but so yummy it will still fool all the gluten-eaters in your midst! You could also just use my easy gfJules Best Gluten Free Cake Mix!

To make this cake into a football shape, use two 7-inch round cake pans (this recipe easily makes a two layer cake or 9×13 cake).  The cakes will be thicker in the smaller pans, and may need to bake for a bit longer. 

To test the cakes for doneness, insert a cake tester or toothpick in the middle of each cake and be sure it comes out clean. 

The cakes will also begin to pull away slightly from the sides of the pans. Add time if necessary to fully bake the cakes.

Carve the cooled cakes into whatever shapes you like — here, a football — and attach pieces of cake (like the football to the turf, with toothpicks or wooden skewers for support). The frosting makes the cake, so don’t skimp! Homemade frosting is easy, inexpensive, and not preservative-laden.  Plus, following my recipe, you’ll be able to smooth the frosted cake just like a professional!

Buying ready-made frosting in a can may look like the perfect shortcut, but those frostings can be difficult to spread on a cake, and tend to pull the crumbs off and into the frosting.

If you really want to use the ready-made kind though, I’d recommend making cupcakes – they’ll turn out just fine.  Companies which have some frostings not containing gluten include Simple Mills, Pillsbury and Betty Crocker (but always check labels!).

For more themed cake ideas, check out my instructions for other fun cakes!

Jules Gluten-Free Gingerbread Football Players

My Gluten-Free Gingerbread Man Recipe OR easy gfJules™ Graham Cracker/Gingerbread Mix makes tons of adorable gingerbread men … or gingerbread football players! When my town of Baltimore was in the Super Bowl, I made these players with purple jerseys and drew their football field out of piped white frosting. Of course, you could also just make gluten free sugar cookies with my gfJules Gluten Free Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Mix or from-scratch recipe!

And wouldn’t you know that chocolate covered almonds make great, edible footballs!

Easy cookie icing is best for any kind of cookie and is easy to color to suit your needs.

Regarding food colorings (necessary for most shaped or themed cakes), there are several options. Easy to find brands like McCormick® are gluten-free and have awesome color choices (I used Neon Purple and Neon Blue for the purple jerseys). Most mainstream brands like Watkins now offer less vibrant, but all-natural food colorings when the original brands like Seelect or Color Garden are more difficult to find.

Decorative sprinkles are another nice touch – try Sweetapolita which has some of the most festive sprinkles around, Supernatural, Chef’s Select, or those from Illinois Nut & Candy, which thoughtfully delineates between its sprinkles which are gluten free, casein free, lactose free, etc.

So this year, celebrate with festive and delicious gluten free cake and cookies! Go team!