Soccer Black Forest Cake 4 Hubby's Bday

Yesterday was DH's bday
He requested for chocolate cake but this time I wanted to give a little twist instead of normal chocolate cake
So I baked this black forest, in fact it's my first time baking black forest
And also, he asked for soccer cake wew.... his fave sport among many others :)

At first I planned to bake 3D soccer ball cake, but I changed my mind and decided to bake soccer field cake instead with players on top

The problem was...it's so difficult to get the cake topper
Well, I did search pretty last minute, but I have seen it many times before and right on time when I needed one, it's out of stock everywhere wew....
So, I was contacting one online seller back in Indonesia who sells baking stuff, so fortunate she had one, so I arranged shipment to Singapore, bought a few small stuff to make full use of 1 kilogram shipping fee I gotta bear

One day before the day, I went to Poon Huat in the afternoon and saw many sets available! Aaarrrgghhh!!!
Worried that the shipment would come late, I bought a set
And in the evening, the parcel arrived...great!
So in the end, I now have 2 sets on hand LOL
The one used on the cake was the one I bought from Poon Huat

Well, having more than enough is still better than not getting what I need, so no complain.. I can give a set for my kids to play hihi...

Now the cake...the sponge cake recipe is from Sonia's site
Believe me, this cake is a keeper, I will definitely use the recipe for cake base again and again in the future! :)
Yummy in taste, seriously soft and fluffy in texture, and it's strong enough to hold thick layer of buttercream and toppers
I baked using 10inch rectangle pan to fit the theme

I cut the cake into two parts, brushed each top with heavy syrup from the canned dark cherries mixed with a little of kirsch, filling was whipped cream and dark cherries

Buttercream recipe was from HERE with slight adjustment, I made 1 1/2 recipe with sugar amount for 1 recipe, added 3/4 part with green coloring and mixed well (the remaining was for the lines)
Frosted the whole cake with green buttercream and I covered the sides with oreo crumbs
The lines were made using wrong tip, I should have used thinner one, mine was all fat lines LOL

You see... I guess I cut the cake unevenly :(

From this pic below that I have taken with my zero photography skill under the worst timing of the day - night time!, I hope you can see how soft this cake is :)

The bday boy and the kids, all of us really enjoyed the cake! So glad and thrilled to know that DH was delighted to see the cake he requested for was right in front of him :)

To my DH, happy bday...Love u always XOXO :)