BAKING PROJECT

I have bought this mold long ago, but have not used it yet.   I’m thinking probably one day I should have a garage sale and try to get rid of all my cake decorating tools.  The ones still looking new but collecting dust.. hehehe.  Anyway,  at last I tried to bake a cake using this mold.   There’s a leaflet attach to show how to assemble the mold and the steps in decorating the doll cakes.

Assembling it was easy, the rod in the middle helps to make sure the cake is evenly bake.   It works similar to a heating core.

"Bakes deep or large cakes evenly every time! Recommended for usage on 10 inch or larger cake pan for complete baking. To bake, prepare pan. Spray core inside and out with vegetable pan spray. Position core in centre of pan. Pour batter in pan around core and fill centre of core half full of batter. Bake per recipe directions. Easy to remove, just take cake out of oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Carefully pull core up and out of cake. Take out the cake from the heating core and put it back into the hole left in the cake." - http://www.surbitonart.co.uk/acatalog/Baking_Accessaries.html

Anyway, back to the wonder mold.  It says to grease the mold with shortening and flour.   So I did just that, to avoid any disaster when removing the cake from the mold.  Wilton pans are really my favourite for baking, I have a few round ones.. they are a bit pricey, but the cakes usually turn out great and easy to remove.  The only thing to remember when using this mold is to prepare enough cake batter.   I was so lazy and used 500 gm of cake premix, and tadaa..   I end up with a short doll.    You will actually need between 5 1/2 to 6 cups of batter to get a full size doll skirt.   The baking temperature is 350F and baking time was close to 1 hour.  Hence, the slightly darken top.  Next time, I must remember to cover the top of the cake loosely with aluminium foil to avoid this.   Once the cake is baked, it should be left to cool in the mold for 10 minutes. Then, while it is still in the mold, cut the top off to level it.   After which, the cake can be inverted to a cake board.  If your cake is not as tall as the mold edges/ rim,  then it will be a challenge to slice off the raised center.

The cake unmolds easily, as expected, but there were some bits still clinging to the side of the pan.  More greasing and flouring next time.

As for decorating the cakes,  tonnes of ideas ! Decorate with buttercream or fondant.  You can even make a mermaid

For those who do not have this wonder mold, don’t despair,  just improvise.. I used to stack two round cakes and then carved out the skirt.   It takes a bit of time and sometimes the result is not as nice.   But nowadays, you can find similar dome-shape pans at our local store, at a much cheaper price.  It doesn’t have to be a branded one,   just spend based on your budget.