i have taken on the task of doing my most difficult cake yet, its gonna be for a communion and she wants the open book type cake. well i bought the wilton open book cake pan( before i was wisely advised to not even bother with that) and when i flipped it over it cracked all over....so now im gonna have to carve a cake WHICH I HAVE NEVER DONE YET! she needs it to feed 25 people so im planning on using my 11x15 rectangular pan now. can anyone please help me with how to carve this cake to look like an open bible, and how to fill such a big cake, and how not to crack it when i take it out of the pan. should i bake 2 cakes so that i don't have to torte one to fill????? please help this newbie thats totally feeling overwhelmed. its due friday april 30th

thanks in advance
Trish

I have no advice since I have never done one - I just wanted to say have a little faith in yourself! I'm sure the cake will turn out beautiful, I looked at your gallery and the cakes you have done are! Good luck

I've never made one but I would try to stack a couple layers of cake and fill them. Freeze for about 30 min to 1hr to make it easier to carve. Then start carving away. Also I found this link in the forum it has some helpful tips. http://www.cakecentral.com/mod.....&&start=30

hope it helps!

use a rectangular cardboard (the ones you would use to place a sheetcake on) put on top... flip the pan.... take the cake out... use another cake board and you can put it back with the top facing up... same thing when torting... tort and use the cake board to slide uder the layer and more it....

if you don't have a cake board that big... maybe find a bug bix that you can cut to size, cover with foil and use....

hth

Here is a link to a book template. When I made mine I enlarged the template and stood it up next to the cake and started to cut. The template helped me get the right curves and have it uniform on both sides.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=340743

If you make 2 11x13's and stack them you will end up with 60 servings according to the wilton serving chart.

I often use the open book cake pan. First, I always line the pan with parchemnt paper on the base. I fold the paper in half and put the fold along the spine of the open book. Then I grease the sides. The secret is to overfill it with batter so that the cake rises over the edge so that you can use a long serrated knife to cut along the cake pan and make a flat base. I suspect you flipped it out without trimming therefore the cake was resting on the round bottom and cracked. I always allow plenty of time for cooling, run a knife along the edges and put wire rack ontop and flip out. Hope that helps!

thank u all so much for the awesome advice.....if u wanna see a beautiful cake look at Jadedlogics BEAUTIFUL daisy cake with stems its my most fave cake.

I have used the wilton book cake pan a few times. I use cake release spray and it works great. Have you tried wilton's cake release?

I have used the wilton book cake pan a few times. I use cake release spray and it works great. Have you tried wilton's cake release?

I have used the book cake pan from Wilton. What I find works for me is to overfill the pan with batter so that there is more cake in the center. I then let cool. I cut a cardboard so that it fits the inside of the pan and then flip it out. Hope that helps.

How about making two small cakes and arranging them side by side? This way the whole project will be much much easier to handle, you can fill each cake separately, carve them and after covering them with rolled fondant nobody will notice the difference!

I would like to give you some encouragement! You CAN do this, just take a deep breath, plan your attack, plan out your steps, write them down if you need to...and GO for it! I have faith in you!!

It wasnt that hard all I did was make two layers of the Rectangular cake pan and carve the center to make the indention of the book.

Check out EBay also- Wilton made a book pan set many years ago (each side of the book is a separate pan). ??This might make it easier to get out of the pan in one piece??

omg! bootneyboo1 that cake is amazing, thank you all for your suggestions everyone. since i have till friday i am gonna bake it in the pan and overfill if that does'nt work i am gonna try the rectangular pan and carve. i love how everyone on here helps everybody it makes it so nice for us that are just starting. also as far as filling it does anyone have any suggestions? she wants a cannoli filling and i was wondering if i freeze it will it be easier to torte and fill?

my deepest gratitude

Trish

I've used the Wilton Open Book pan without issue. I line and grease just like everyone else does.

Just wanted to make sure you aren't using a really soft cake recipe, or trying to turn it out of the book pan before it's totally cooled and set.

first of all...if the cake is just cracked it can still be used....now if it is falling apart...that is another story.

Second... what I do is crisco and flour my pan and then line the bottom with parchment paper.

next over fill the pan a little so that as soon as you take it out of the oven you can easily level it while still in the pan

let it cool around 10 minutes...(not much longer than that) ...run your knife along the sides just to be sure they are loose. Place a cake board the size of the pan on top and flip the whole thing so that the pan is 0n top and the cake board is on your counter/table...gently remove the pan and you should have a beautiful sheet or 1/2 sheet cake.

when carving you do have to make sure you have a good sturdy cake recipe. If you use cake mixes then I suggest a box of pudding mix towards your flavor of cake...this will make it more dense.

also, what Rachie204 said is important. All of the time pans say to fill like half full and if you fill about 3/4 full you will get a nice high cake.

All the other advice here is great