Ghosts, Goblins & Ghouls All Agree – This Haunted House Rocks!
Written: Oct 01 '03
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Pros: Just the right amount of detail, large enough to feed 15 – 20.
Cons: Hard to find, requires extra care when cleaning and storing due to large size.
The Bottom Line: Don’t settle for boring Halloween treats; make a cake that’s really great!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Wilton Haunted House Baking Pan 2105-181 |
In this house, you know Halloween is right around the corner when you see the black and orange totes coming out of the closets. I start unpacking a lot of the stuff in the middle of September to see what needs replaced and what’s still in good shape. The bakeware items are usually found in good condition, which leaves only the frostings and sprinkles to be purchased. One of my favorite Halloween baking pans is the Wilton Haunted House. It has just the right amount of detail but not so much so that you don’t have a little creative freedom when it comes time to decorate it. This is a great pan to use if you want to make a centerpiece for a party and if you show up at an event with one of these cakes, the host or hostess might just go batty when they see it.
Wilton Haunted House Baking Pan 2105-181
If you want to really scare the life out of your party guests, set aside a few hours to make your very own haunted house cake. This aluminum baking pan is one of the coolest items Wilton has in its Halloween collection of products. When completed you’ll end up with a large cake that can be decorate in a lot of different ways. The pan is pretty big so you might want to hand grease it to make sure that all the small sections are properly coated and be sure to tap out all the flour so you don’t end up with clumps of it on the cake. An alternative to this is method is to use cake release, but I’ve never had much luck with it when I’ve tried it. There’s a lot of detail around the door and window so those areas need a little extra attention, make sure that you coat the entire pan since this will rise a good bit when baking. I usually use one box of cake mix per house but if you want one that is thicker / higher, mix two boxes and pour it into the pan until its about three quarters of the way full.
This 12 x 9 x 2 baking pan is extremely detailed – but ultimately what you choose to put on top of it will determine how great it looks. The mold features four windows and a main door, the photos that Wilton provides shows just a few of the things that can be done once the cake comes out of the oven but don’t feel limited to what you see. Want to makes it a haunted house for Barbie? Frost it pink with flowers and colored sugar crystals – then slap a big Grim Reaper on it – you gotta have something for shock value. There’s really no limit to the things you can do with this pan – Blue’s Clues Haunted House? No problem, frost it blue, make it colorful then get the Blue’s Clues cake toppers and decorate them. Since the pan has just the right amount of detail, there are a lot of liberties you can take when you decorate it. The hardest parts to work with are the door and the top window but if you practice on the rest of the cake, when you get to these spots you’ll be used to it and able to work in a tight section.
Things To Know
The photo that Wilton has up at their site and the one that is listed here is a tad bit misleading. The finished cakes are decorated with shingles, a fence, ghosts and a lot of accents. These are all things that you have to add to the cake so don’t expect to be able to pop this out of the oven, slap on a layer of frosting and be done with it. You’ll need to set aside at least a half hour for basic decorations but if you are going all out – at least two hours. You might think that’s an insane amount of time to invest into something that is going to get hacked to pieces, but if you are going to do it, you might as well do it right.
To make quick work of decorating there are a lot of short cuts you can take. Instead of making the ghosts that are shown flying out of the windows, you can purchase the candy cake toppers [completely edible] and use those. For shingles, graham crackers work nicely, all you have to do is pipe on some icing for the individual slats and you are done. The fence can be made from a variety of things – black licorice, Kit Kat bars, chocolate covered pretzel sticks or a dollhouse fence. If you are going to decorate the cake with things that aren’t edible, make sure that they are removed before cutting it and the items are tossed in the trash or put someplace safe so kids don’t accidentally start munching on them.
What fun is a haunted house cake without a few surprises? There are a lot of things that you can do to make your cake unique but most of them have to take place before you bake it. One of my favorites is to use a white cake batter and ad a ton of red food coloring to it – so much so that when people eat it, their mouths turn red. Since food coloring is non-toxic the worst thing that will happen is ‘red mouth’ – a great effect for the season. If this isn’t something that you want to be bothered with, you can pour in the batter then add a few drops of red dye and swirl it with a toothpick. Other things you can do include tossing in a handful of chocolate chips to the batter, chopped nuts or colored sprinkles. These are a great effect because they melt when the cake is cooking and you end up with a lot of little colored dots when the cake is cut. Don’t over do it with the sugar sprinkles or you’ll end up dying all the batter. This needs to be done at the very last minute before you pour the batter into the mold so that it doesn’t start breaking down and tinting the whole mix.
Clean Up & Care
Since this has a lot of detail, cleaning it is a little more than just soaking it and wiping it clean. You need to use a sponge with a scrubber pad to really get into the window frames and door panels. I suggest soaking it in warm water with a mild dish soap them scrubbing it out, finger brushes and old toothbrushes are great tools to use to get it squeaky clean. Investing a few extra minutes to clean it properly will mean you won’t have to toss it in the trash if it starts to rust or turn. You can air dry this or wipe it down with a few paper towels but you will want to make sure that it is completely dry before you store it away. If worse comes to worse, don’t toss it in the trash, use it as a wall hanging or as a candy serving dish.
The Bottom Line
Overall, this is a great Halloween pan but it can be used outside the season as well. If you have a new neighbor, baking them one of these with a “Welcome” sign on it is a great way to introduce yourself. There is a slightly creepy feel to the pan but most of that can be eliminated when you decorate it. So far this pan has seen a lot of use; I generally make five or six of these each year and give them out as gifts to friends. Storing it might be a chore since it is rather large and you’ll want to make sure that the design doesn’t get dented up or it might ruin the face of the cake.
Wishing you a spooky & safe Halloween ….
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2003 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): ------------
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