I recently attempted my first cake baked in a novelty pan, the Wilton 3D football. It was a disaster, i greased the pan with butter and flour, and it still stuck and fell apart when i tried to take it out of the pan. The cake also went hard and crusty on the outside by the time the centre was cooked, i baked on 160 degrees celcius, and have no idea what went wrong.

Please Help!!!!

Try using shortening and flour instead of butter and flour. Butter has a lower melting point than shortening. Here is some more information if your are interested:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/fats.html

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that next time Any idea why it went crusty on the outside before the middle was cooked?

Any tips for baking larger/novelty cakes would be greatly appreciated!!!

The outside baked before the inside because the temp was probably a bit too high..You can also cover the corners with foil to protect them from over baking...Lower the temp to 325 and bake a little longer.Also...never use butter ..instead like vgray stated use shortening only...then coat in flour..Butter will burn thus causing the cake to stick.HTH

You can use a flower nail in that pan.

I used the Ariel pan last month for the first time and had the same issue -- not with the sticking, though (I used cake release since I couldn't use parchment paper), but I had a real big issue with the edges getting very hard and crusty. I re-baked at a lower temp, which didn't help mine -- though I use an older oven, so my issue may be more due to the oven that I'm using. In the end I just ended up cutting the bottom portion of it off. And to get a little more height (since I had to cut a substantial amount off), I just baked a thin layer and then stacked the two. It was a nice height after that.

But definitely use cake release or a shortening/flour combo instead of butter.

Thanks for all the advice guys, very much appreciated!!!

It probably bakes unevenly due to the odd shape of the pan. As cheatize said, use a flower nail. It will definitely help it bake more evenly.