Hi everyone, i need some your great advise! My birthday cake was a huge sucess ( was also my first cake)

Although i now have a problem, ive been asked to make a 21st birthday cake !! HELP !! lol ( what have i done ! )

She would like a huge cupcake with white chocolate butter icing.
I really need some help.

Ive seen the huge cupcake moulds but i dont know:

a) What s the acutal size of them , are they big enough to be a birthday cake size ? I was thinking of doing normal sized cupcakes to match the large one so there is enough cake for everyone?


b) Has anyone used these before? Are they ok?

c) What amount of mix do i need for one of these?

And also would ' white chocolate butter icing' work ? as the chocolate will obviously harden.

Thank you so much for any help and advise.

Cait

If you have round cake pans and an ovenproof bowl, you can make any size of "giant" cupcake. You stack 3 layer cakes for the base. Chill and carve it to the tapered shape. You pipe icing for the ridges.

Then you add a cake board on top and then a cake baked in a bowl so that it is rounded without having to carve it. The bowl should be bigger than the cake pan for the bottom.

It might sound like some work, but you do it slowly over a few days. And you don't have to buy the pan.

You can use any kind of butter cake and any kind of icing. White chocolate butter icing is good becuase it will become firm in the fridge.

But you can see the actual dimensions and other information for the Wilton brand pan here, and there is a link to recipe with useful comments

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=4018F320-423B-522D-F5ECDA6F3A2ABB5E&fid=6557DC6E-1E0B-C910-EA15039AC81D5B55

Wow ! thank you, never though of using normal cake tins ! I have 2 deep 9" and one deep 7" cake tins.
I did look at the silicon molds £6 but thought the dimensions were a bit too small for a ' giant cupcake ' Are the silicon ones any good? Not sure i could afford a Wilton one.

Would doing this over a couple of days be ok with a sponge mix ?

Id have to do a couple of tries at it, i think!
I need this for th 21st of november so enough time to get it right hope. Otherwise a small fortune in eggs,butter etc!

Sorry for all the questions !

Thank you for your help
Cait

Asking questions is always OK. Especially before you bake.

Keep the flavours simple--no fancy fillings until you have done this cake with all buttercream.

The sponge will be fine. To carve, you stack the layers with buttercream, add a crumb coat. Chill until firm, carve, and ice with a new crumb coat. The sponge should not have a chance to be exposed to air for very long.

I would make a practise stacked cake with one 2" layer each of your 7" and 9" to minimize the waste due to carving (which goes straight into your next trifle). That's the base. You can make this as a trial cake by itself.

Then--do you have an ovenproof round baking dish or pie dish that is 10"? You don't need this to be more than 3" deep, and you use the natural hump top get a little extra height.

I can't tell you much about silicone. My experience of silicone for cupcakes was that the bottoms overcooked at the same 325 setting that my aluminum pans bake very well. I didn't buy any more after that.

You will have to use dowels (plastic drinking straws) for support anyway. Here is the info

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/

I have a couple of ovenproof dishes but not that size unfortunatly I will have to see how much thse are.

I do have a prob with our gas oven ( i think ), sometimes there seem to be no heat in it, even on a high setting like 7 or 8. I had problems with my first trial 2 tier cake for my birthday. Even though it was a sponge cake, it collapsed and i cried !! Although i used the correct amount of mix etc , the outside of the cake was kind of crispy and the inside although cooked had holes like italian bread !
I dont know why.

Second was fine thank god, or i wouldnt of had a birthday cake lol


Thank you again
Cait

OK. So I don't know how many people this has to serve, but...you can still use your present pans.

Try stacking two of your 7" cakes for the base. Carve so the bottom is a little more than 5" and don't take anything off at the top. Total depth of cake 5" will look good.

Then bake one well humped deep 9" cake for the top. Trim it to the right shape--mostly at the edge. When you put it onto the base, use two layers of cake board that are 9"

Ok, great thank you. I will try this, im not sure how many yet !
I only got asked yesterday and havent been able to check yet. She has drawn me a little picture today, but i thought i could do one main huge cupcake cake then make normal sized ones, say 12 or more that match the main cake.

She would like sugarpaste butterflies and flowers on the top. Like i made for my cake. Now, the sugarpaste flowers etc ,for me, they are the easy bit ! Even the sugarpaste pair of high heel shoes i made !

Would the sugarpaste flowers & butterflies be ok placed on the white chocolate butter icing ?

Thank you so much
Cait