Father's Day Breakfast for a Baseball (or Sports) Enthusiast.

Got a sports fan in your life? Want something fun to serve for breakfast on Father's Day or how about on the morning of a big game? Well, all you have to do is transform a piece of cheese into a sports ball and use it to top a sandwich, a burger, or even a mini pizza. My breakfast sandwich topped with baseball cheese, pictured above, was very simply created by using a red food coloring marker to draw the stitching onto a round piece of provolone cheese.

The breakfast sandwich, pictured at right, is topped with a golf ball inspired cheese. I created the dimples in my golf ball by cutting small holes in a slice of white cheese and layering that on top of another slice of white cheese. I thought it looked pretty good, but after I had taken all of my pictures, eaten the sandwich, and cleaned up my mess, my husband suggested I write the brand name of a golf ball on the cheese to make it look more like a golf ball.  Great suggestion, but too late.  I didn't want to have to re-create my entire sandwich to take another picture. If you make this cheese, do follow his suggestion. I asked my Facebook friends if they could figure out what this was, and no one got it right.  Oh, well. Not every swing is a hole in one!

You can transform cheese into pretty much any type of sports ball by using food coloring markers and a little bit of artistic skill. If you want a little help with the sports ball patterns, you might want to purchase Autumn Carpenter Designs Sports Ball Cookie Cutter & Impression Mat Set. Each set includes one round and one football shaped cookie cutter and texture sheets to create the features of 8 different sports balls. While they aren't absolutely necessary when creating sports balls out of cheese, they sure are helpful in creating a great pattern to follow. You simply press the texture mat onto a slice of cheese and the seam lines in the ball will show up on the cheese. Just draw on top of the lines and you have great looking sports balls. I used the texture mat to create my first golf ball, and although it looked good in person it didn't show up in a photograph very well.  The soccer ball texture mat is so great, as I've never been able to draw a perfect soccer ball. Of course, even with the mat, it is the most complicated ball to create out of cheese and you'll notice that I didn't make one. Lazy me! You could, if you prefer, use a sports ball stencil to make easy work of adding a design to your cheese.

A few month's ago during March Madness, I showed you how to use orange colored cheese to create mini basketball cheeseburgers, as well as, as a simple party snack of crackers and basketball cheese. I also shared a recipe to create a basketball bean dip and basketball tortilla chips. All of these recipes can be used with various sports balls and I'm sure anything that can be topped with cheese would work too. Just be sure if you are adding your cheese to something hot, that you add the cheese at the last minute, or it will melt too much.

You are now armed with a myriad of sports themed recipe ideas. I hope you enjoy making this fun food for your special occasion.

Breakfast Sandwich topped with Sports Ball Cheese Slices

Ingredients - Per Sandwich

1 (or 2 for the golf ball) slices of white cheese (Provolone, Gouda, Monterey Jack)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon whipping cream or whole milk
pinch of salt and pepper
non-stick cooking spray
1 English Muffin
1 slice Canadian Bacon or ham
optional, tomato slices and lettuce

Special Equipment Needed: (dependent on the ball you make)

3" round cookie cutter or a football cookie cutter
food coloring markers
Decorating Tip-#10 Round (for golf ball)
neon green food coloring (for tennis ball)
food coloring in primary colors (for football or billiard balls)

Instructions:

To create a baseball, football, or tennis ball out of cheese:

Cut a cheese slice using either a round cookie cutter or a football shaped cookie cutter. For the baseball, you need to draw on two curved lines using a red food coloring marker.  Then add the V shaped stitching to those lines. For the tennis ball, use a pastry brush to dab on the neon green coloring, then use a yellow food coloring marker to create the seam line.  For the football, blend six drops of red and four drops of green food coloring together to create a nice brown. Cut two strips of white cheese and lay them at either end of the football. Dab brown food coloring all over the ball, then remove the strips to reveal two nice lines of white. Cut very thin strips of cheese to create the stitching and gently pressed them onto the football.

To create a golf ball out of cheese:

If you want to add a brand name to your golf ball, do that before you make any of the dimples.

Cut 2 cheese slices using a round cookie cutter. One will become the background of the golf ball and remain a solid white round of cheese.  The other will have the dimples cut out using a #10 decorating tip.  Press the tip, small side down, into the center of the cheese. As you press, twist the tip, this will give you a nice cut out.  Lift up the tip and continue to cut holes in a straight line across the middle of the cheese, dumping the little dimples of cheese out of the decorating tip as it gets full. Cut another straight line of holes set off center of the previous holes.  Repeat until the entire round of cheese is covered in holes.  Set this slice of cheese on top of the solid white slice of cheese.  Use your hand to press the two slices together, rounding off the hard cut edges.

To make the breakfast sandwich:

Whisk egg, cream, salt, and pepper together. You can cook your scrambled eggs over medium high in a non-stick skillet then press them into the round cookie cutter to create a nice rounded shape or if you prefer, you can spray a round glass ramekin with non-stick cooking spray and pour in the egg mixture, then heat in the microwave on high for 30-60 seconds until cooked through. Another option is to fry or poach the egg.

Toast your English Muffin. Top one half of the English Muffin with lettuce and tomato slices, if using, then with the hot cooked egg, slice of Canadian Bacon, and sports ball cheese.  Serve immediately.

If you like this recipe, please share it with others by using the share buttons below. I really appreciate being Stumbled Upon, and am always grateful to those of you that share my ideas on your website. I do request that you don't post my entire tutorial, but rather share a picture with a link and be sure to mention the recipe came from Hungry Happenings. If you make this recipe, I'd love for you to send me a photo to beth@hungryhappenings.com. Thank you for visiting Hungry Happenings - Beth