Hi folks, I am to do a doll cake next week for a customer (my first) and I have only used by dolly varden tin once before with disasterous results. The cake stuck to the pan incredibly, even though I used a lot of spray oil.

I have tried to put baking paper in, but due to the shape of the tin am finding this very hard. I am not a good sculptor to make this without the tin. Does anyone have any tips to help me get the cake out of the tin when cooked?

Much appreciated. Cheers Tina

The one we have that makes that shape is called a wonder mold...I had to look up dolly varden tin to see what shape you were doing. Parchment wouldn't work in that, you're right. What works best for me is that spray with the flour mixed in, but otherwise shortening and flour would be the way to go.

You could try the homemade cake release made with equal parts of oil, shortening, and flour. A lot of people here love that one.

Thanks folks, I did just use the copha and flour and it worked a treat. I put a cylinder in the middle to act not only as a core heat thingy but also to give me a decent hole to put the doll into. That has worked as well. Found last time the cake took so long to cook because of the depth of the pan, but the heating core reduced this considerably.

The doll cake is for next weekend. So I just made it tonight as a practice run to see if it would work, which it has. Now I have the cake made, I have a little girl's birthday on Saturday and thought I would use this cake, rather than throwing out a perfectly good cake, but both her parents and I don't like Barbie dolls and any dolls of a similar nature. So my next question, if you don't mind me asking, is what can I make this particular cake into? I have seen A Tea Pot, BeeHive, Circus Tent and Hut any thing else that a little 5 year old might like, would be appreciated.

I used that shape for a shark's head before, for a 5 year old's birthday (but I thought it was too scary). It would make a great hill, you could put a small castle on top and make it look like there was a path winding down the hill from the castle.

Thanks Texas Rose. May just do the hill bit with perhaps flowers at the edge and I need something poking out of the top, as I have a hole there. Perhaps Stars or something. Hmmmm, problem is my imagination takes a long time to kick in and I need to finish it today.

Cheers