Summer is heating up, and the baseball season is in full swing. This tiered design works well for baseball fans of all generations and adds color to your cake display. Make the gumpaste baseball caps, bats and balls ahead of time so you can quickly knock out this design as requests come in. Use generic, primary colors to please any fan, or use the colors of your local school or city's baseball team to win over supporters.

1. Ice and stack 8-in. and 4-in. cake rounds. Add a multi-colored ribbon around the cake board.

2. Airbrush yellow around the base of each tier and across the top of the 4-in. tier. The yellow will provide a good contrast to the green grass.

3. Pipe green grass around the base of each tier and on top of the 4-in. tier using grass tip No. 234. To make the grass more realistic, do not completely mix the color in the icing to give it a variegated appearance, and when piping the tufts, alternate the direction give the grass movement.

4. Create ball caps, balls and bats out of primary-colored gumpaste. To create the full and half caps, drape gumpaste over a ball to dry into the correct shape. For the bills, use an oval cutter and then slice the oval in half; also drape over a ball to create the curved shape.

5. Place a full cap on top of the cake.

6. On the top of the bottom tier, in the front of the cake, place the gumpaste bat and baseball on tufts of grass so the bat does not lie completely flat. Place two half caps on either side of the bat, slightly pushing the caps into the side of the cake.

7. Cut cloud stencils out of card stock, and airbrush blue clouds on the sides of the tiers. Do not press the stencils against the cake; rather, hold them slightly away. This prevents indentations in the icing and gives the clouds a less defined edge. Vary the size of the clouds, overlap some and color some in completely to add depth to the design.

8. Add additional color to the design by sprinkling candy confetti on the tops of the tiers.

9. For a birthday cake, airbrush the appropriate numeral a vibrant orange. When airbrushing a small item, such as a number, hold the decoration with a small tool, and then move the tool to completely cover the decoration with color.

10. To complete the design, attach the numeral with buttercream to the front of the top tier.

ASHLEY VICOS

Like many girls of her generation, Ashley Vicos' love of baking began at age 5 with an Easy-Bake Oven. That love has become her career as she now owns Atlanta-based Sweet Ashley's, a commercially licensed cake studio, where she creates custom cakes and teaches cake decorating classes. Vicos has competed in several decorating challenges on TLC and the Food Network and has been seen on NBC and CBS.

View a photogallery that explains how to make the Home Run Cake.