When my youngest daughter turned two, she insisted that she had to have an Elmo cake for her birthday party. At that time, I really didn't like the Elmo Face Pan which is the only currently produced Wilton pan so I purchased an Elmo Full-Body Character pan from eBay.
Fast forward a year and a half. A neighbor had heard that I made "beautiful cakes" for my daughters' parties and asked me if I could make an Elmo cake for her son's 2nd birthday. I offered up the pan that I still had from my daughter's birthday but she really wanted the Elmo Face Pan and had already purchased it.
The Wilton Elmo Face Cake Pan is constructed from lightweight aluminum. When you purchase the pan, there's a paper insert which has a picture of Elmo on it. On the back are instructions for baking and decorating your cake. Should you lose the insert, simply go to http://www.wilton.com where you can search for the cake pan and download the directions from the Wilton website. This is very useful if you purchase an older pan at a garage sale or over eBay.
Character cakes are pretty simple to decorate, but it helps if you've taken Wilton Cake Decorating Course I. For this particular cake, you don't even need that. The only techniques you need to make the Elmo Face character cake are outline piping (tip 3) and drop stars (tip 16). The areas are large enough that you could possibly just be very careful with a spatula to decorate this cake although you'll get more professional looking results using traditional techniques.
There is no small detailing on the Elmo Face Cake. I actually felt guilty accepting payment for decorating this cake as it was so simple! The cake calls for three different colors of icing: No-Taste Red, Black, and Orange. I used tip 3 to fill in the mouth (black), nose (orange and red mixture) and eyes (white with black pupils). A little bit of cornstarch to smooth things out and then the rest was covered in red tip 16 stars. Also, be sure to get No-Taste Red because the regular red does have a slight aftertaste. Since Elmo uses so much red, this is really important. I used half the bottle of icing color to get the right color red.
The usual issue I have with the details on the cake not being as clear as those on the insert was moot with this pan. The Elmo Face Cake Pan provides a finishesd product that is almost impossible to mess up as every detail is as clear as glass.
Be sure to set plenty of time aside to make this cake! I always bake the cake the day before in order to allow plenty of time for the cake to cool. Frosting a warm cake results in lots of crumbs! It's also important to use a cake leveler or a knife to even out the bottom of the cake so that Elmo isn't lopsided. I usually do this while the cake is still in the pan, at the same level as the top of the pan. It means a bit more icing on bottom around the edges to fill but that isn't a big deal. It took me about an hour to completely decorate this cake.
Directions are also included to make buttercream icing, to use Wilton Frosting Mix and Ready-To-Use Decorator Icing, to use Wilton Icing Colors and some basic decorating techniques needed to decorate this cake.
As for baking the cake, the pan has a capacity of one regular cake mix such as Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker. Prepare the pan by first washing it in hot, soapy water. Then, I highly suggest purchasing some Wilton Cake Release which you spread over the pan, into all of the tiny crevasses with a pastry brush. You'll want the oven to be at 350 degrees and it's worth the investment in a cake tester since you'll want to bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes. It's easy to overbake cakes using a character pan so keep a close eye on the timer.
Keep in mind that if you're planning on feeding a small crowd, you'll either need more than one Elmo cake or you'll want to supplement with a sheet cake. This cake fed 6 children and six adults according to the birthday boy's mother. You can also place this cake on top of a large sheet cake.
Unless you're planning multiple Elmo parties or activities, you probably won't use this pan more than once. Some parents I know use the pans as beach toys so their children can mold sand into character shapes. Use your imagination!
If you'd like to try your hand at character cakes but have never decorated anything before, the Elmo Face Cake Pan is a great first cake to try. It's a simple design that is very difficult to get wrong.
Recommended:
Yes
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
Fantastic prices with ease & c...(Stock status: N/A)
He's sweet, lovable and popular with kids of all ages. One-mix pan is 13 1/2 X 10 1/2 X 2 in. deep. Aluminum.This is a licensed product and is not ava...More at Amazon Marketplace
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