I haven't tried a character cake yet. For those of you who do them, what do you like about doing them? It seems like it would be a lot of fun to create a cake that looks just like someone's favorite cartoon/toy/superhero/doll, etc. And I'm sure the pan-collecting can become addictive too. For those of you who are experienced with character cakes, "share the love!" I'm interested in hearing more about this. Thank you.

Wow, what an impressive subject line that is! 'Time for me to go to bed.

hi.i've been colleting character pans for about 11 years now and i have over 300 of all sizes and characters.i love making cakes for my family and friends.and it is fun making them.what i like most about it is i can't draw or make the flowers.but i can still ceate a pretty cake that everone loves.

I agree with Brenda it is alot of fun making the character cakes. Though I don't quite have 300 pans it is addicting to collect them.

I'm self teaching the art of cake decorating. so for me. since I too can't yet master flowers its a fun way to create a cake and feel like you've accomplished something beautiful.

What I also found was that when I wanted a character cake for my son no bakery around me did them anymore so I thought I HAD to learn how to do this.

They are an easier way to decorate. Little kids love them. I HATE doing them because I hate doing all those stars. Character pans were my entry into cake decorating though.

I like the character pans too...it saves the time and trouble of having to cut them out of a sheet cake. If you don't like doing all the stars, you can fill them in using your choice of tip (I use a 3 or 4) and a side-to-side motion.

wow, great topic! i have quite a few pans, but not 300. character pans is what i started out with too, the only downfall is, those stars!

Thank you all for your responses.

I really like the character pans in that you still can individualize them for whatever reason-most are not for just one way-a friend will only do ELMO in the stars-I do it in the grass tip and make it look like fur-I did an ELMO cookie-the girl does not like cake but loves ELMO-did a sugarcookie and decorated it -she was thrilled-just something different. And you can do a jello mold, things like that-it's just things that you decide to do-even a cheese mold -you name it!!!

nanni, I hadn't even thought of those options. That's great, then--You certainly get your money's worth from the pans/molds that way, then, with so many different uses. This is really interesting. I had thought of character cakes as all being pretty uniform too, so thank you for this post.

I too like character pans. In fact I have had people give me the pan as payment for the cake which is ok with me... when they do that I use a cake mix and frosting in a can to decorate them. That way it's cheaper and I am not losing money, just time. As for the stars.....I find that it takes me longer to do a character pan for some reason, I think because I have to keep putting the bag in the refrigerator because the stars don't look as tight as I want if I don't. Either way, I cant wait to do more.... I was hoping one of the 4 cakes I am suppose to do this weekend was going to be a character pan cake, but the lady never stopped by with the pan so I guess I have to do the square cake she ordered... oh well.

I have a different take on character pans. I no longer do them. I find its really hard to get a coating of frosting on the entire cake without ruining the lines to outline. Without covering the entire cake with frosting first, I find the cake does not have a good base & air gets in to the cake between the stars. Just personal preference. Helen

I like the character pans, too. When I first got started, that was all I used. And then I got crazy about collecting them. I have a storage room for them in the basement-I am at about 200. But I haven't bought any recently-last year I got spongebob and he was the last. But I did find that it made me not be as adventurous with trying out new things. I don't alwasy do the star fill in. I like the grass tip for fur, or the round tips just to fill in for a smotther look. I haven't had any problems with them yet.

Tanya

I love character pans. Since I suffer from LOC (lack of creativity), it helps me out a lot. I have found that those stars are easier if you have the triple star tip. It goes a lot faster.

Try one or two... I think you will get hooked!!!

I like character cakes even though I haven't done a lot of them. I have done the flag cake a few times which I don't have pictured. The reason I like them though is because there is no torting and filling so it saves a bunch of time. I guess you could tort and fill them but I usually don't. Also, you don't have to worry about smooth icing because you are going to cover the cake in stars or lines anyway.

OK I have never done a character cake, do you ice the whole cake first then go over it with the stars, or do you just do the outline and then stars?

I just do the outlines and then pipe in the stars directly on the plain cake. I don't bother coating the whole cake with icing first. However, if you are worried about your cake drying out, maybe it wouldn't hurt to give it an undercoating of icing first.

Good luck!

Could you use simple syrup first then the stars? Like I said I have never done it but it seems to me that it would be easier without the undercoat of icing.

That's a good idea!

I use the character pans quite often but have yet to make the character pan as itself. I look at the pans for their shape mainly.

I used the Bumblelion pan as a Male body shape for a '40 and needing viagra cake'!

I used the smurf pan as the base shape for my dolfin cake, with the bell pan cake on each side to widen the head, the tail was a bunny head with the ears as the tail tips, the tip of the smurf hat was cut off and placed at the bottom for the snout, mini hearts were cut for the fins.

My dragons snout and nostrils were a mini bat pan.

I just used the 3-d Bear pan to make my wolf.

I also like to use my Christmas Tree pan for baking bread in to make subs at Christmas.

My kids have made cereal cakes in them and decorated with candy.

I too have a collecting addiction with about 40 character pans and 50 mini pans. Pick them up second hand all the time!

So let your imagination go wild and have fun.
RaeMarie

I use to collect them until I started back drawing. I draw the picture onto wax paper and then do a gel transfer. I found that the transfer is much quicker.

I like to use the character pans, and think both the cake and the BCI stay fresher if I coat the cake first with simple syrup or apricot glaze, something along that line as a sealer.

I also see lots of other images in one pan (like some people are using Dora as a penis pan), I plan to use my question mark for a ghost at Halloween, and possibly as a hot air balloon for a party later on. I think the Big Bird with the bow tie will make a pretty good base for a Christmas wreath! Janice