Hello, I have to make a dog cake for my niece's birthday this weekend. They don't care what kind of dog, just as long as it is a dog. Well she has a favorite toy Yorkie I thought I would try to make using the stand up lamb pan but I'm having some design difficulties. First off my lamb pan has no instructions so I went on the wilton site, got no 'official" instructions but did find in the forums some from other previous posts. My pan doesn't have the holes in it though to check for doneness so how do I know? My pan is two solid halves that snap together. The post said you fill one half full to the top, put the other half on, secure with wire or foild strips and bake at 350 for 30-40 mins. It also said you have to use pound cake to make it sturdy enough to hold the icing and not fall apart. This is a problem since they want white cake not pound. There was a suggestion in the post to add pudding to make it sturdier and allow it to sit...undecorated for 24 hrs to let it harden up a bit first. Has anyone tried this? This cake has to sit on a 13x9 and travel over an hours drive on bumpy backroads...I'd hate to have it fall apart on the way! Could I dowel it somehow so the snout and head don't come off?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

TIA!

First of all, can you rethink the dog so that the head is down? (See lots of dog cakes in my photos with their heads down.) That way you wouldn't need to be concerned about the way it might travel.

You really do need a sturdy cake in those 3D pans. Check some of the recipes on this site and try one of those, but if nothing else, use the pudding-in-the-mix recipe. You can also do what I always do with the rubber ducky pan: Cut the head off the duck, board and dowel underneath the board, replace the head, and dowel down through the entire thing.

Cooling the cake is a time when you might break off the head. When it comes out of the oven, lay it face down on a cooling rack and remove the back half of the pan. Let it sit that way for 15 minutes or so, replace the half of the pan, turn it over, take off the other part of the pan, and let it cool completely. You don't want the head to try and support itself while it's still warm.

HTH, and post a pic!

Deanna

From my experience I would make it from a pound cake recipe or you could use the WASC recipe which is a white cake mix doctored to be a dens cake for shaped pan cakes if its going to be sitting on top of another cake I would dowel it and put a cardboard under the dog cake to keep it level I hope this helps. I travel with my cakes all the time and have not had a problem yet you cake also needs to be baked anywhere from 24 to 48 hours a head to make sure its cooled and settled. at least thats what I do
I do have that same pan and their should be a tiny whole at the bottom ot the lamb when you bake your cake the the lamb pan should sit face down you can stick you tooth pick in that whole to check for doneness I hope this helps
Molly2

I was orginally going to do the laying down version but I did a cat last year for her using that technique so I thought I would do a different type of dog. Also I'm not making anything on this cake so I didn't want to go to the added expense of ingredients for the cakes that need to be carved.
My thinking was one cake mix one pan basically (for the dog only).

Molly~ My pan doesn't have a hole anywhere. Just two halves that fit snuggly together.

I was hoping to make the cake today and let it cool to decorate tomorrow evening or Saturday for the party on Sunday but now I'm not sure what I'm doing

Hummm! not even on the back of the lamb at the bottom thats where the hole is at on mine its a tiny hole. Will if your going to lay it down I would still dowel it and as for the cake will it should hold its shape wiith a reg. cake mix I have done the shaped cake pans with reg. mix I just use the ones that have pudding in them and I would make sure it was cool before decorating it

Molly

If your going to lay the lamb flat then you should only have to use only the top half of the pan and tort it don't worry about the hole for this cake

Molly

If I use the lamb pan it will be standing up like it should be...just altered to look more dog-like.
The laying down dog would be the ones cut from the 10" rounds that are so popular on here...though I'm trying to get away from that type.

I checked and DH checked....no holes in this sucker. I'm concerned about using it now though because I have no way to know when it's done and I'm not sure how I would check it.....maybe I should have DH drill one?

Will if theirs not one I would have one drilled mine has a hole on the back of the lamb in the middle at the bottom

Molly2