has anyone ever made a 2 layer cake with a wilton shaped pan? I want to make the Dora the Explorer cake for my daughter but i need it to serve more. i was thinking maybe if i bake 2 of then and cut the top off of one so i have a smooth surface? any ideas?worst case scenario i'll just bake some dora cupcakes to go along with it but i would rather not lol.

I've never done a 2 layer cake with a character pan but I don't think you will have a problem with it. When I have someone that wants a character cake to serve a lot of people I make a 1/2 sheet cake as a base and then stack the character cake on top.

I have made a two layer using the Wilton Crown cake pan. I did just what you said... cut the top design part off to get a level base. The only issue I found was that because you can't really use bake even strips that the shaped pans have a tendacy to not always bake up even. So when you try to do a 2-layer out of it there can be HUGE gaps to have to fill in on the sides.

But another solution is to place the Dora onto of a sheet cake. I have done this before because I too need more serving. Just place it on a cake board you have cut down to fit perfect around her and place on top of your sheet. Bring extra icing so that when you lift Dora off you can add icing, if need be, so that everyone has a iced piece.

HTH and GL!

@melanie i usually put my characters on a sheet cake but that's to many servings for this party.
@carolinagirlcakes thanks! ive never had any issues with the cakes not baking evenly so it shouldn't be an issue. glad to know this will work out! lol thanks guys!

When I did the Ariel cake pan, I found that it was just too short (because of baking even issues etc). Since I needed more height, I baked a sheet cake, iced the top, placed Ariel on top, then cut around the Ariel cake to give it the same shape. (Though I only baked to a height that I needed, though I could've done a full 2" cake if I were to do a 2 layer)

The scraps were quickly devoured by my boyfriend and his family (and myself), and tbh, there weren't that many scraps -- so that's the only problem that this way has; you may have more cake scraps (unless you are able to match the size fairly well).

I've done exactly what you said. Just put a heating core or flower nail in the center to help it bake evenly. Came out perfectly!