I am in desperate need of the Wilton Little Mermaid pan with the plastic face for my daughter's 4th birthday party in 2 weeks. I have looked on ebay, but they are going for about $50!! Does anyone know where I can rent one or borrow one? Any help would be appreciated.

Welcome to CC. You'll find a great group here with lots of helpful info. Don't know what area you are in but one cake supply store here in NC rents them. Have you ever heard of or ever tried a buttercream transfer. There is a really great article here on CC that explains how to do them. It is under the articles tab at the top of the page. They are great and you aren't limited but what pan you can find.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the tip. I am in Indiana, but just moved from NC a few months ago. I dont think there is a place here that rents pans. What a good idea, though. I did check out the FBCT and might attempt it, but am nervous.

Since you mentioned eBay you might want to check this out; it is a link for an edible image of the little mermaid on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/LITTLE-MERMAID-EDIBLE-CAKE-IMAGE-NEW_W0QQitemZ4436212827QQcategoryZ46281QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That might work for you if you can not locate a pan in time. You might even be able to get one locally. I know here in NC Kroger will sell you an edible image.

I hope you try the BCT. I thought it was going to be very hard but it wasn't so bad. The main problem I had with the BCT was waiting long enough for it to freeze. You have lots of time to practice before your daughter's birthday. I bet you can make it work for you if you need to.


Hope that helps!

Thanks for the ebay link. That is a great idea! I might try that before tackling the FBCT.

Here is a link for the pan with the face plate on ebay...
http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Little-Mermaid-Disney-Ariel-Wilton-Cake-pan_W0QQitemZ4438284007QQcategoryZ116002QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I have been looking on ebay, but most of the pans are selling for about $50+ and I was hoping to not spend that much. I guess I could buy it, use it, and the sell it on ebay myself.

You could do one of the doll cakes (use an Ariel doll) and use the leaf tip (so it will look kinda like fish scales) to make her look like a mermaid too - do a search, I know I have seen this type done. OR wrap the lower half of the doll in saran wrap and have her set on a 9X13 cake then frost over her and decorate her as the mermaid that way too.

What a shame you are there..I am in UK and have a mermaid tin, instructions and two faceplates..I would have quite happily lent them to you but abit silly sending them all the way to the US..admitedly I did buy them in the US off ebay..and since I bought it had no more orders for it typical.........

Oh well....maybe get one soon

Rach

I did an Ariel cake for my daughter's birthday this past summer. It's in my photos. I just took one of the Ariel dolls from the store and made a large candy shell and then put her on that and did coral out of royal icing. She loved it.

You have time to play around with the FBCT. Some advice on this from someone who has just gotten into the groove of them (FBCTs):

I keep a piping bag with a 1 tip filled with black frosting. Make sure it is thinned with corned syrup. I use this for all the outlining.

Freeze for at least 20 minutes before filling in your colors.

All of your colors should be thinned out with corn syrup. This really helps to prevent the 'worm' look in your transfer... you want in to be smooth.

A toothpick is awesome for getting the details---eyelashes, etc!

Make sure you put your frozen transfer onto a room temperature frosted cake. It will not stick to chilled and hardened icing.

Just some things that I wish I had known from the get go!

Have fun and post a pic!

Kat