# Wilton 3D Skull Pan and Spider Ice Mold



## kittyvibe (Oct 27, 2008)

thanks for posting the pic of the spider mold. He looks neat, those eyes are so big!  I have that skull pan and tried making a cake with it. the face demolded fine but the back near the base crumbled. I tried to salvage it with "gluing" with frosting there and seemed ok, but trying to frost the middle to piece the halves together wasnt working.  The face slid down low, I dont know what I could try to do differently with the cake but it was a failure. 

Im now thinking of using it for a mold for prop skulls but dont want to ruin it. So now it just sits there, ho hum.


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## ThAnswr (Dec 17, 2008)

I bought one of the spider ice molds too. I plan to use it in the punchbowl.


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## Mizerella (Aug 6, 2009)

Wow! I have to run to michaels and get a spider mold! 

I bought a skull pan last year and it is great! 


Here is the cake I made using it.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Beautiful cake Mizerella! The roses are a nice touch. Were they done in marsipan? Since you've used the pan, any thoughts on why Kittyvibe's cake didn't turn out well? I know the pan is non-stick but I always spray my non-stick anyway and wondering if it was a sticking problem or turning the cake out too soon or letting it sit too long in the pan. I know a number of people have used this pan with good results and hate to see her give up on it.

BTW I was in a Michaels today and they no Wilton Halloween in the store. Zip. So before you make the trip you might want to call to see if its been stocked yet. Plus I know from following Wilton's Halloween mdse that not all is sold in stores--some apparently only online, and not all stores get the same products. Some stores seem to have an exclusive for the year on certain designs.


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## dippedstix (Jul 2, 2009)

Mizerella said:


> Wow! I have to run to michaels and get a spider mold!
> 
> I bought a skull pan last year and it is great!
> 
> ...


That cake is FANTASTIC! Love it!


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## Mystikgarden (Aug 9, 2008)

I love it! I just don't know if I could bring myself to cut into it....


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## Mizerella (Aug 6, 2009)

I am not sure why it didn't work for you kitty ? Cakes can be temperamental so it may have just been one of those times. You should try it again for sure!

I would say Defintley spray the pan well , I usually grease and flour my pans. Also you need to do a dense cake like a pound cake. Light airy cake mixes don't usually hold up well for molds. Turning cakes out you don't want to do too soon, but you also don't want it sitting in the pan too long. For like 15 minutes. Of course there are almost always those little spots that stick even when you are careful but hopefully they are small and patchable this way. 

Also I used very little frosting to fill it . Did a crumb coat, chilled it, then covered it in fondant which really holds it together. 
I don't know if that helps?

Like I said it may have just been one of those times. Even the pro pastry chefs have those days, trust! 

I hope you do try again.


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## kittyvibe (Oct 27, 2008)

your cake is boo-tiful Mizarella  I remember that I had sprayed the pan and lightly dusted with flour, but I used the non dense type of cake batter, a ginger cake type. So maybe Ill try it with a firmer recipe. I didnt use fondant, but I can see that helping it stay put. When I tried putting powered sugar on it , the sugar wouldnt stick to the cake, lol, because of the flour from demolding. 

I have bad luck with baking in my adult life for some reason, I used to make some delicious cakes when i was a kid. They always came out in one piece too. Maybe age has put some cobwebs on my cake-foo. hehe


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## Mizerella (Aug 6, 2009)

Maybe those sprays for baking with flour in them would be better too. 

Here is a Red Velvet recipe that is nice and dense and should be good for the mold too.

Mom's Red Velvet 
(2 - 9" pans or one 13 x 9, 26 cupcakes)

1/2 cup butter (unsalted, softened) 
1 1/2 cups sugar (granulated)
1 Tbl Vinegar (white)
1 tsp Vanilla
3 eggs
1 oz bottle RED food color

2 1/2 cups AP Flour 
2 Tbl cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk


Heat oven 350. 
Grease and flour pans.
Sift dry ingredients set aside.

Beat the butter. Gradually add the sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add vinegar and vanilla and beat some more. Add eggs one at a time beating until blended.

On low speed, alternate adding the dry ingredients with the buttermilk beginning and ending with dry. 

Add the food coloring be carful not to splash.

Bake aprox. 20 minutes, Cupcakes aprox. 15 minutes 
Check with the toothpick test.

Edit: baking in the deep pan is very different than a normal pan so here is what I did... 

bake 15-20 min then rotate pan and redistribute center batter 
bake 5 to 10 minutes then add flower nail to back of skull side only
bake 10 to 15 more until centers come out clean

baking times may vary always watch a recipe when trying it the first time. 


If you want to do powder sugar on the outside like the box shows and having trouble with dry flour parts, maybe brush or spitz on a little simple syrup and let it soak in to moisten up those dry bits.

Here is another good trick... Take a metal flour nail sprayed with baking spray. Stick it in the middle when the cake is dense enough that it doesn't sink. The metal brings heat to the middle and cooks the cake more evenly.

Just got my skull pan out. I will do a test using the recipe this week and let you all know how it goes, and if there are any alterations that need to be made. 

Edit,: Use the Pam Spray for Baking it worked way better than grease and flour. but be careful not to spray so much that it pools in the cavities. 

The back of the head is much deeper than the face side. Use the Flour nail method mentioned above on the back side of the head it is not needed in the face side.

This is a dense cake so it does not rise very high, however mine dod want to poof in the centers a little. After 15 minutes of baking I rotated the pan and gently scooped some of the center batter around the edges to even out the bake a bit.

Trimming it to get both sides to match takes a little patience so don't rush it. The bottom of the face side needs to be on the plate, or it will slide.


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## sweetdiggity (Jul 19, 2011)

That cake looks like something the Cake Boss could do. Awesome! I so want to get that skull pan!!!


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## Mizerella (Aug 6, 2009)

Thanks sweetdiggity! 
I just tested the red velvet recipe and it turned out perfect. I also used the Pam Baking Spray and it popped out like a charm. There are some things I noticed when baking in the pan I will edit them onto the recipe. I would say definitely do a trial run before your party. Plus you can always bake your cake a week or two before wrap each side in plastic wrap and freeze it, then thaw it out and frost it the day of or before.


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## kittyvibe (Oct 27, 2008)

Mizerella said:


> Thanks sweetdiggity!
> I just tested the red velvet recipe and it turned out perfect. I also used the Pam Baking Spray and it popped out like a charm. There are some things I noticed when baking in the pan I will edit them onto the recipe. I would say definitely do a trial run before your party. Plus you can always bake your cake a week or two before wrap each side in plastic wrap and freeze it, then thaw it out and frost it the day of or before.


thats a great idea! looking forward to your recipe  your so awesome!


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## Jennegen (Mar 2, 2013)

Hi Mizzerella love your cake! Is it airbrushed or hand painted? Thanks!


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## tortured_serenity (Sep 17, 2012)

Beautiful cake! I have the same pan and when i tried to put it together the top half smooshed the bottem half and wouldn't sit up like it's supposed to. I haven't tried to use it since.


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## mejess68 (Mar 24, 2012)

Had my wife pick up the skull pan last year and used it to make "bread head" to go with "meat head", we used skewers to hold the two half's together, then chiseled out the top of the skull and filled with dip.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Mejess68 that came out so well! Great idea. Curious what kind of bread dough or recipe she used. I would have no idea how to judge quantity of recipe for it. It would be nice if you could use frozen bread dough like Rhodes and not have to adjust anything....liking the simpliest approach. Probably a dense bread would work best.

Expanding on this idea, I could see making a few breadheads and using empty soup cans to try coring out holes and then filling the holes with olives, carrot and celery sticks and other crudites. That would make for an interesting table display.


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## ThAnswr (Dec 17, 2008)

A batter bread recipe might work. I would imagine a plain white bread batter. I have to experiment.


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## mickkell (Dec 27, 2008)

Wilson has the Skull mold on close out for 19.99 and I found the Spider Ice mold on sale for 3.75 at Global Sugar Art.
Bought them both.


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## mejess68 (Mar 24, 2012)

Ghost of Spookie, it was just a pre-mix from wallmart, went with the italian since we knew we were going to fill it with sour cream and onion dip (thought it would go good together, it smelled amazing). She tried a couple of times using a from scratch mix recipe but something was wrong with her yeast mix and it wouldn't rise so we were down to the wire with my kids halloween party. I had her over fill since I thought it would be better to have to cut off more than not have enough. Then I just cut it to size and used skewers to hold it together and lined the dug out with plastic wrap so the dip wouldn't soggy up the bread. For the dip I just spooned it into a plastic baggie and clipped the corner then squirted away as I got close to the final layer I did horizontal squiggles in 4 rows to make it look like brain matter. Next year we plan to use some kind of honey glaze and maybe even some thin onion pedals to add some finishing touches to the skull and maybe corpse-a-fy it somewhat. Thanks for the kind remarks.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Thanks for the info Mejess68. I'll use it as a guide when I try mine. We're not big cake eaters so the bread might be a better way to go, at least during the year when I try it out ahead of time.

Mikkell, 19.99 is a good price for the skull pans (50% off). I have two of them and bought one at either Joann's or Michaels with a 50% off coupon and the other one I think I picked up from BuyCostumes last year after halloween during their additional 40% Off Cleaance items sale. They run this each year since I've been following it.

This BuyCostumes price has been the very best pricing I've seen...bringing it down to $11.99! (on clearance at 50% off and then an additional 40% off on top of that). Not surprisingly they sell out of this item very quickly at this price. 

January-February time frame is a good time to look for clearance on these more expensive Wilton pans if you can buy ahead. BuyCostumes still has the Wilton large bone pans and witch's finger pans on this addtional 40% off clearance sale if anyone is interested--sale supposedly ending on 3/10 (the date has been extended a few times already so this might be it)--look under Sale--All Discounted Party Supplies to see what's left.


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