This cake did NOT turn out like my vision but my son liked it so thats what mattered. I was going to go with a grey, white, and red theme but the black food coloring I added (I used liquid because I was out of the gel) turned it what I call "ding dong brown". I kept adding more white to make it grey but it didnt work out and I ended up with too much of it and just went with it. It also made it softer than normal and the ball did NOT hold its shape. I was sort of disappointed in this cake but everyone else seemed to like it.