Hi All, Apparently I am a professional bear killer and had no idea. I collapsed my first attempt by pulling out the heating core before I was supposed to. (This made a large bag of cake crumbs for cake balls - the cake tasted great!)

I sic'd my daughter on that mean old bear, and apparently she is a pretty good bear killer also. She decapitated the bear. (Another really good bag of cake ball ingredients).

I have thrown in the towel and am now resorting to the RKT bear. I plan on decorating this with a diaper for a baby shower tomorrow.

I am looking for advice on how to make a cake without killing the bear completely. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Happily huntin' bears in SC! Shea

Hi there, I was wondering if your cake is too tender, maybe not dense enough? I have used the bear pan to make a bear, snowman, panda bear, and pinguin, and never (knock on wood lol) had any problems with it, the recipe I've used is "Vanilla Butter Cake from The Mermaid Bakery" posted here at CC. I don't know who is posted by but you can search it with that name. It works great and is very tasty. Good Luck!!!!

I agree with espearles...maybe the recipe was too tender. When used the bear pan to make bear cakes, I use a pound cake recipe. I'm sure the Mermaid recipe is awesome but I use a pound cake recipe that I modified from KitchenAid. They come out great.

I think that most pound cake recipes will do well in that pan.

Well, if you are making the bear from RKT, you can use the bear pan as a mold.

Are you making sure that the pan is REALLY well greased? All those 3D nooks & cranies are potential sticking spots. I think Wilton recc's using a pastry brush to lube up the character pans with shortening ( I could be wrong, it's been a while since I used one)

As for a more sturdy cake, try subbing 1c of buttermilk for the water on the cake mix directions and then adding an extra egg.

HTH
Kristy

Thank you all. I have printed the Vanilla Butter Cake and after I release my RKT Bear from the cage, will try that. The pound cake recipe I was using has 8 oz of cream cheese in it. I wonder if that made it too tender. This has been a great source of amusement at my house since neither my daughter or I can get to work. My hubby is loving it because he knows cake balls are in his future! LOL.

I've used straight box mix on both the regular and mini bear pan with no problems. I followed the directions exactly and I kept the core in while I decorated it (after removing the cake in the core) for the regular sized one.