Birthday Party for a Volleyball Coach?

One of my friends was a soccer fanatic, and his family made him a soccer ball cake using a pyrex bowl rather than a regular cake pan. You could simulate a volleyball with white frosting and then color the lines and words with foodcoloring mixed into some frosting you reserved--or use licorice string? For cheap way to decorate: Put into a small ziplock sandwich baggie and then cut a fairly small tip. You can use this or a frosting kit--(some at grocery stores are disposables but can be washed and used again and again and are very cheap)--to pipe the lines of the ball as well as a birthday message or whatever over the cake. I myself am using the pyrex bowl method to make a volcano cake for my little girl's upcoming luau birthday party. I found this recipe tonight, coincidentally, and it recommends the bowl cake and trimming the cake around its base to give it the appearance of a ball. Check it out; it can easily be used for a soccer ball.

4 cups any flavor cake batter
3 cups white colored frosting
1 (8 ounce) package black licorice whips
3/4 cup black colored white sugar
Directions:

1 Heat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Grease and flour one 2 1/2 to 3 quart
ovenproof bowl.
2 Pour prepared cake batter into the prepared
bowl and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let
cake cool for 15 minutes in the bowl then
invert and let cake cool completely.
3 Once cake is completely cool trim flat side
of cake and place on a cake board. Trim edges
into a ball shape. Frost with the white
frosting. Next using a toothpick draw a
pentagon in the center top of the cake.
Surround the pentagon with five hexagons.
Repeating to cover entire cake. Cover lines

Makes 1 - 2 1/2 to 3 quart bowl