Shaped Cake Pans

How To Build A Collection Of Cake Pans

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:12:41 +0000

When you love to bake it’s important that you have the proper tools to get the job done. Having a full set of standard cake pans is important, as well as having some of the fun and more abstract pans is very important. In this post I want to show you some tips for finding these pans as cheap as possible, as well as some ideas for storing them to keep them looking as good as the day you bought them.

Finding Cake Pans Locally

The key for buying pans in your area while saving a lot of money on them is to accept that used pans are just as good as new ones. Finding used pans is extremely easy, and you can get them nearly free. I like to go yard sale shopping, and this is the place that I use to fill in the empty spots in my cake pan collection. I try to avoid non stick pans from yard sales because they are generally scratched, but traditional stainless steel cake pans are very easy to find. You can expect to pay anywhere from a quarter up to a dollar or two for pans this way, which is a steal compared to buying new.

Thrift stores are another great place to pick these up. This is generally where I find my character cake pans, and they are in relatively good shape. Again, avoid the non stick pans, but anything else is fair game.

Shopping For Cake Pans Online

If you’ve read any other page of this site, you know that I’m a big advocate for buying pans on eBay and Amazon. We’re working on setting up a thorough directory of cake pans on this site, as well as shopping options for each. Use the search option up at the top of the page to see if we already have the pans that you’re looking for.

The Fun Cake Pans

There are a ton of shaped cake pans out there, and as they hit collector’s status they become extremely expensive. Star Wars cake pans tend to run $50 and up, a Mario cake pan will set you back about $40, and a Ninja Turtle cake pan will be around $20. So what can you do to reduce the price? Start with the tips in the local section above like the yard sales and thrift store. Another option is to check Craigslist. Many people end up with huge collections of these pans, and tend to sell them off in bulk. I was able to score 30+ Wilton cake pans for less than $100 this way.

Should you decide that you don’t actually want to own the pan, many local libraries will rent them out. Check with your local branch to see what they do. Another place that may rent them out is your local Mom and Pop kitchen supply store.

Caring For Cake Pans

Theoretically, a cake pan should live longer than you do. The problem is that they get banged up in the pantry, scratched from improper use, or simply forgotten. A simple solution is to have a cabinet in your home that is designated for your pans. A set of round or square cake pans can easily be stacked to take up less space.

This gets a bit trickier with the shaped pans because they won’t stack uniformly. Instead, try to have enough space that they can all fit without having to stack them too tall. A stack of two or three pans is fairly easy to navigate through to find the one that you need.

Also, never use metal utensils on nonstick pans. Doing so will scratch the finish, which causes it to no longer be nonstick, and can become toxic. Scratched metal is also more likely to rust and harbor bacteria inside the gouges.

If you’re having a hard time keeping track of all of your pans, simply make a list of them and tape it to the door of the cabinet that they are stored in. This will only take a few minutes, and you’ll never be scrambling to find that Spongebob cake pan ever again!

Having a ton of cake pans to choose from is great for anyone who loves to bake. Getting the ones you want at a cheap price will keep the cost of building a collection low, and using the tips above for keeping them safe and organized will make sure that you never have to replace a pan!

Transformers Cake Pan

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:44:00 +0000

The Transformers cake pan is a sweet way to celebrate a birthday! This cake pan is pretty easy to decorate, and could be done by even novices. The good thing is that this cake is current (not retired) so it is very easy to find, and if you were lucky enough to find shaped cake pans in your area this is one you would probably see. It’s far more likely you’ll save money on this cake pan by shopping online. In this post I want to show you some quick decorating tips for this cake and where to get it for a great price.

This cake is definitely not tough to decorate, but it is important that you have a bit of practice with the icing bag before hand. You’re going to have to create a lot of straight lines, and a steady hand and even squeeze will help with that. To practice, get a sheet of parchment paper and test it out there. Once finished, you can put that icing right back into your bowl for use later.

The Transformer birthday cake pan will take some tight attention to detail when decorating to get the “shadows” right and all of the lines parallel, but aside from that it should be a fun experience.

Shopping for the Transformers cake pan online is a good decision. With Amazon you can get all of the party supplies that you need, and have them all shipped right to your door at a great price. With eBay you can save a ton of money over shopping anywhere else.

Here’s what Amazon has to offer-

Here are the current listings for eBay. With some scrolling through the items you’re bound to find the Transformers cake pan at a lower price than most other places.

Mickey Mouse Cake Pan

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:47:59 +0000

I never understood Wilton’s thinking behind discontinuing cake pans. The Mickey Mouse cake pan is always in high demand, yet it was retired a long time ago. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that there are four different Mickey Mouse cake pans and one set of mini cake pans. There are some small details that make one of them a collector’s item, while others aren’t. In this post I want to show you how to get black buttercream icing, the difference in the four cake pans, and where to get these pans at a smokin’ price.

If you try to make black buttercream icing from white vanilla it will take a ton of coloring, turn teeth black, and taste nasty. Instead, start with chocolate icing and it will only take a tiny fraction of the coloring to get a black color.

The Mickey Mouse Cake Pan Collection

The most desired (but not most expensive) Mickey Mouse pan is the one that is simply his face. This traditional icon is perfect for any party, and simple to decorate. You can usually find this pan for between $15 and $30, depending on its condition. If you plan on baking, rather than collecting, don’t worry about spending the extra money to get the insert, the instructions are all available for download from Wilton’s website.

The oldest and least expensive of the cake pans is the Mickey Mouse Band Leader cake pan. Why this pan is the least expensive, I’m not sure, but it always has been. He’s wearing a band leader hat that could be easily decorated to be something totally different. Expect to pay between $5 and $20 for this pan.

My favorite of all of these is the “Arms Behind The Back” cake pan. You’ll understand why the arms bit is important after you read the next paragraph. Mickey is standing up with his arms behind his back and wearing pants and a shirt. You can expect to pay between $15 and $25 for this one.

The collector’s item cake pan is the Mickey Mouse Waving cake pan. This pan was produced as late as 1995, so there are still tons in circulation. I think that the reason it costs so much is because he’s wearing his traditional shorts and nothing else. Expect to pay over $50 for this pan, only the Darth Vader and the the rest of the Star Wars cake pans cost as much as this one!

If you want to get one of these cake pans for baking instead of building your collection, shop eBay. You can save a ton of money over buying them from anywhere else. Below you’ll see the most current listings for Mickey Mouse cake pans. Use the arrows to scroll through the listings, click on them for more details, or use the search bar to track down a specific pan.

Cookie Monster Cake Pan

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:10:21 +0000

The Cookie Monster cake pan (both of them) has been retired, but you can still find them without much work. Seriously, who wouldn’t love a Cookie Monster shaped cake for their birthday? I don’t know anyone, and if you do they probably shouldn’t be your friend anymore! In this post I want to show you the difference between both of the retired cake pans, and where you can get them from without breaking the bank.

The first Cookie Monster cake pan was discontinued in 1981 by Wilton, but somehow manages to be easy to find in the secondary market. This goes to show how popular baking was then, and how popular it’s once again becoming! This cake pan is very similar to the later one (next paragraph) except there isn’t anything in his hands. He’s wearing a chef’s hat (?) and is very blob shaped. The pan from the 90’s has more detail in the neck so his head doesn’t look like it’s attached to his chest, like it does in this pan.

The later Cookie Monster pan was discontinued in 1996 and has a much more logical shape than the 70’s pan does. The biggest different is that he’s holding a cake in his hands. Obviously, you could decorate it so that the cake is anything (gift, cookie, nothing) so that shouldn’t be something that turns you away from this pan.

Somehow both of these cake pans avoided collector’s item status (unlike the Star Wars cake pans and Mario cake pan). This is great for you if you plan on actually baking with it! You can get these pans very cheap, usually less than the price of a new cake pan on eBay (see below).

There is also a rare Muppet cake pan that’s really hard to find, but it could be used as Cookie Monster, Grover, Animal, or any of the Muppets.

Here are the current eBay listings that you can use to buy or bid on the Cookie Monster cake pan. Use the arrows to scroll through the listings, or use the search bar to track down exactly what you’re looking for.

Number Cake Pans

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:13:31 +0000

Number cake pans are pretty straight-forward. You get the numbers that you need, bake them, and decorate them. Instead of going into details on each pan, like I usually do, I’ll give you some really helpful decorating tips and where to find them at rock bottom prices.

From the amateur’s eye it would seem that a number cake pan is really easy to decorate, but they can be pretty challenging. When you look at the number 8 and number 6 cake pans, there are small holes where the cake curls around that have to be frosted or fondant applied. This is is pretty tough to pull off! The trick with icing is to do that area first, so that you don’t screw up the rest if you do it last. With fondant, get ready for some patching down deep. It’s tough to get big fingers down in there to get it done. You’ll need some narrow spatulas or long, delicate fingers.

Another extremely useful tool is a lazy susan. Every cake decorator should have one of these, but they’re incredibly helpful when decorating number cake pans. You don’t want to have to continually walk around the counter decorating all of the lines and curves on these pans, so get yourself a lazy susan!

These are all Pantastic cake pans, which means that they’re plastic. On the surface you’d think that they would just melt, but they don’t unless you bake with the oven way too hot. They’re also microwaveable, I’ve never tried it, but I heard that it works.

Here are the number shaped cake pan from Amazon. As you can see, they’re very affordable but don’t expect to get more than a few uses out of them. Below these you’ll see the pans on eBay.

(Numbers 6 and 9 use the same cake pan!)

Here are the current listings from eBay for number cake pans. Use the arrows on the right to scroll through the list, or use the search box to track down the number that you’re looking for.

Ninja Turtle Cake Pan

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:18:16 +0000

They’re the worlds most fearsome fighting team! The Ninja Turtle cake pan is perfect for those that are current fans or just want an awesome blast from the past. Somehow, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have never gone out of style, and this makes the demand for the cake pan very high. However, unlike the Mario cake pan and the Star Wars cake pan, the price for these hasn’t gone through the roof. There are actually two different Ninja Turtles cake pans, and a mini cake pan that’s extremely rare. In this post we’ll take a look at all three of them.

The most common Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake pan is the plain face pan. This is simply a turtle’s head that can be decorated to be Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, or Raphael. All you have to do to is change the color of the icing for the ninja bandanna thingy that they wear. You can usually find this pan for less than five bucks on eBay (listings will be available at the end of the post).

Another cake pan is the full body shot (see picture above). Again, this pan can be any of the turtles that you want it to be. The full body pan can be found inexpensively as well, although not as cheap as the head pan, on eBay. Usually for around $10.

There is also a mini cake pan/treat pan that was made by Wilton in 1994 that has six cavities for cake/cupcake. These are extremely rare when compared to the other Ninja Turtle cake pans, and I had a hard time finding information on it, although I have seen it in the past. You can expect to pay between $30 and $50 for these, which is obviously a big difference from the full size cake pans but the pan is very cool.

eBay is the best place to get these cheap, but Amazon also has them if you prefer shopping there. So see Amazon’s options, click here.

Here are the current eBay listing for a Ninja Turtle cake pan. Use the arrows on the right side to scroll through the listings, or to track down the exact one that you’re looking for use the search box on the top.

Square Cake Pan

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:30:28 +0000

The square cake pan is one of the most common and functional pans that we can have in our kitchen. There are thousands of different uses for it aside from baking, so having a set of them is crucial to the well stocked kitchen. In this post I want to give you some insight on why it’s important that you have different sizes of square cake pans as well as show you where to get them cheap.

A square cake pan set is probably the best place for many people to start. The common sizes are 9″, 11″, and 13″. Having each of these cake pans is important because there are tons of different baking jobs that you will do with these over the course of their lives. If you’re planning on baking a tiered cake with these, it’s extremely important that the pans are proportional to one another so that the cake will be balanced. That means that each tier is two inches smaller than the previous tier.

You will also get a lot of cooking done with a square cake pan set. Casseroles, melts, and enchiladas all work very well in these versatile pans. If you have a set that is nonstick, be sure that you don’t scratch the surface and chip the nonstick, this becomes toxic.

Cheap square cake pans are available both on Amazon and eBay. Click here to see the great deals that Amazon has to offer.

Here are the current listings and prices from eBay for their square cake pans. Use the arrows on the right to scroll down and see everything, or use the search box to track down the exact pan that you’re looking for.

Sheet Cake Pan

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:14:00 +0000

A sheet cake pan is the tool of the restaurant trade. They’re used for everything from brownies to cooking bacon in the oven. At home you can get just as many uses from them, even baking cakes! In this post I’ll give you the run down on all of the different uses that you can use these for as well as where to get them at great prices.

Baking large cakes and brownies are the regular uses for sheet cake pans. Most traditional ovens aren’t big enough to fit a full sheet cake pan, but half sheet cake pans work great. You can use these for baking cookies or as a tray for heating anything in the oven, like french fries, baked chips, roasting garlic, or baked cheese.

You don’t need a non stick surface on a sheet cake pan. Aluminum sheet cake pans can maintain their pretty shine if you use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat when baking things. Having a few of these pans on hand is very helpful when big baking projects come up. Having four pans works best for me so that I can bake two sets of cookies on both racks of my oven and get the next two ready while they’re baking.

Amazon has an excellent selection of sheet cake pans that you can check out by clicking here.

Here are the best prices from current eBay listings. Use the arrows to scroll down, or use the search bar on the top to track down exactly what you’re looking for.

Batman Cake Pan

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:20:40 +0000

Finding a batman cake pan for a good price is a tough job. There are three different Batman cake pans, and all of them are currently discontinued. In this post I want to show you the difference in the three, decorating tips, and where you can buy them from.

The first, and most common, batman shaped cake pan is the Batman With Moon cake pan from Wilton. It’s Batman flexing his muscles in front of the moon. This pan can be found relatively cheap (around $30) on the secondary market. I like this pan for birthdays because the space around the moon is perfect for a happy birthday message.

The second, and most bizarre, batman cake pan is the Batman Beyond cake pan. I’m not really sure where Batman Beyond fits in with the Batman story, but it’s a strange looking cake. He has extremely narrow and pointy ears and red details on his suit. If you had this cake pan you could decorate it with the more traditional gear.

The third, and rarest, cake pan is the Superman Batman cake pan. This pan can be decorated as either super hero, and comes with plastic emblems for their chest and a plastic face. Prices for this cake pan can be pretty outrageous, but it’s very cool. If you plan on getting this cake pan, be sure that it comes with the plastic pieces, or it’s going to be a serious pain to decorate.

There is also a fourth pan, the Batman emblem cake pan. This is also retired and hard to come by.

Here are prices and pictures from Amazon.com. Clicking on one will take you to more information.

The main problem that people run into when decorating these cakes is how to make frosting black. The trick is to use a black corn sugar gel (they have it at the grocery store) mixed with chocolate frosting. If you use white frosting it takes a lot of the gel to get it black, and it will turn everyone’s mouth black in the process. Starting with chocolate takes far less coloring and will taste better.

Batman cake pans are also available on eBay. Here you’ll probably find better prices than you would on Amazon since there are more options.

Guitar Cake Pan

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:54:41 +0000

A guitar cake pan is the perfect tool to kick off any musicians birthday party. A simple cake pan like this can be decorated as an acoustic guitar, a bass guitar, an electric guitar, or even the Guitar Hero guitar for a GH party. The best thing is that the cake is not difficult to decorate so even the most novice decorators can get great results. In this post I want to offer some tips for decorating this cake, as well as show you where to get it cheap.

Since there are so many different ways to decorate a guitar shaped cake pan, it’s important that you have a good picture or an actual guitar to work from. The more time you spend finding this important piece, the better your cake will come out because of your increased understanding of the guitar’s shape.

The only tough thing that you’ll come across when decorating this cake is making sure that the strings (if you choose to add them) come out parallel and straight. To get this right, decorate the body and the neck of the guitar first, then take a straight-edge and carefully lay it into the cake where the strings are going to be. Don’t push hard or the icing will bunch up on the sides, all you want to do is give yourself a groove to guide the icing or gel that you’re going to add. Remember that a guitar has six strings, so it works best to figure out the center of the neck then add three straight lines from each side of center. The section that leads to the tuning post (the very top) will still have to be done freehand, but the rest of your lines will be neat and straight.

If you’re making a Guitar Hero birthday cake spend the extra few minutes to bake the “buttons” rather than just decorating the squares right onto the cake. I’ve seen this done both ways, and it makes a huge difference. To bake the buttons use a sheet pan with parchment paper and put a ladle full of cake batter for each button onto the paper. Bake it at the normal temperature for 6-8 minutes, or until it’s done. After they’re cool, peel them from the paper and cut the buttons out with a knife. Adhere them to the cake with a dab of icing and you’re ready to rock!

Amazon has guitar cake pans for about $12, which is a great price. Check them out here.

eBay is usually the place to get the best prices on cake pans. Below you’ll see the current listings for all of the guitar cake pans that they currently have. Most of them are new, some are used, but they all should be a great price.