Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Pooh Bear Cake, How to Bake a 3D Cake!


I made this 3d cake for Great Grandma Mary Lou.  Of course, she loves Pooh.   


I had so much fun baking this cake, that I had to blog.  Yes, it's true, I'm still baking but I kind of fell off the blogging bandwagon.  So, here it is a new year and a fun new cake!  I hope you enjoy it!

  I made the Basic Golden Cake from Tish Boyle's Cake Book.  My all time favorite vanilla cake.  I used a Peppermint Buttercream frosting to decorate the Pooh Bear.  I could have made a pound cake but because I make my cakes from scratch they are little denser than box mixes.  I would not recommend using a box mix for this cake.


I had quite the time trying to figure out this 3d cake pan!  This is my first 3d cake pan and I have to say I'm very happy with the results despite all the complications I ran into.

My local library has cake pans for lending.  Pretty cool, huh?  Well, I went online and reserved this pan but I had no idea what I was getting into!  They didn't have a picture or description other than Pooh Bear Cake Pan.  When I went to pick it up, to my surprise, it was a two piece pan.  No instructions, no clips, and no heating core!  I took it home so I could figure it out.  I got online at Wilton and found the instructions.  Then I went to Amazon and found the clips and a heating core.  Yay!  I didn't mind ordering them because I'm sure I'll use them again.  My 8 clips arrived the day I wanted to bake the cake.  Perfect timing!  My back up plan was to use metal bullnose clips.


Here is my freshly baked upside down Pooh Bear cake!  I cooked it for 50 minutes.  I learned that when you bake a 3d cake you will want to overfill the cake pan because you need enough batter to fill out the entire shape of the cake.  I used a cookie sheet to catch the overflow. Even though it looks like a mess, the clean up is pretty easy.  I just soaked the pans in hot soapy water and the cake came right off.

You can see the heating core at the bottom of the cake (above).  I put cake batter in it (after I greased and floured it) to hold it down in the batter and I used aluminum foil strips to keep it in place while baking.  Some people recommend removing this core after cooking but others say not to.  I decided I wanted to leave it in so it could help stabilize the cake.  Since I was actually going to the party, I knew I could retrieve it after we cut the cake.


The cake cooled for 10 minutes, then I carefully pried the two pans apart with my spatula, and lifted the back pan off.  I let it sit for 5 minutes. Next, I covered the back side of the cake with a piece of plastic wrap, replaced the cake pan on the cake, and flipped it over.

I was very happy about how clean the pan came off.  Before baking, I brushed organic shorting (palm oil)  on every crevice, and dusted it with flour.  There were a couple of spots I missed and had to go back and touch up.  It was worth the effort.


I removed the front cake pan and left it on the cooling rack all night (Wilton recommends 5 hours).  


Here is the cake cooled and bear naked.  Sorry!  I just can't help myself sometimes.  ;)  Poor Pooh!


I outlined the cake in brown and then started piping on the fur.  My sweet girl got a chance to pipe a few stars on the back side.  She did such a great job!!  She is going to be a baker like her Momma.



Pooh Bear all dressed up and ready for the party!


6 comments:

  1. Oh, you are so talented! This is one spectacular
    3-D cake! My youngest has a threadbare Pooh bear that he carried around constantly for many years...so your cake brings back some wonderful memories :)

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  2. Thank you Liz for the compliment! This was a fun cake to make.
    Rachel

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  3. Question about how you used the tin foil to anchor the baking core. I just did a test run with my 3D Winnie the Pooh cake pan. I had a hard time securing both of the heating core prongs to the pan, tight fit! Of course as the cake rose the heating core pushed out. Where and how did you place the foil strips to help hold the core down?

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  4. Hi Epiphany, I just folded the foil into strips (so they were nice and sturdy), then I made an x with them over the heating core once it was in place and filled with batter. I folded the strips over the edge of the pan to hold them in place.

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  5. Question I'm also missing the clips and heating core. Did you just use a random heating core or do I have to find the exact one that comes with the mold ? Thanks

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  6. I used a Wilton Heating Core, I didn't have the one from the kit, and I'm not sure what it looked like. Good luck with your cake! :)

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