[UPBEAT MUSIC] Hi, I'm Stephanie. And today, I'm going to show
you how to bake and decorate with shaped pans. Shaped pans are sometimes
called novelty pans are character pans. Essentially, these are not
your standard round, square, or loaf pans. They come in lots
of shapes and sizes, and they're really fun to use,
especially for kids' birthday parties and themed parties. These pans look
kind of advanced, but they're actually
deceivingly simple to use. And today, we're here to help. But before we get
started, don't forget to subscribe to
our channel so you don't miss any of our videos. The term shaped pan applies
to this heart pan or character pans like this dinosaur pan. For today's project,
I'll be showing you how to bake and decorate
in the dinosaur pan. But all the steps
would be similar if you're using any other shape. What I love about
shaped pans, aside from the fact that they
make such cool shapes, is that baking is very easy. It's almost like baking
in any other cake pan. But if you look closely, there's
lots of corners and grooves which create detail
and serve as your guide when you're decorating. The cake can cling
to these details. So make sure you grease
your pans so well that you get a nice smooth release. For this heart pan,
watch out for corners like the top and bottom point. You can use a nonstick
spray, like Bake Easy, to generously cover the surface. You can also use cake
release if you'd like. If your spray starts
pooling or you're not getting the small details,
just take a pastry brush and help it spread. We want to have a
nice, even coat. I've already
prepared a cake mix. You can use your favorite. Shape pans generally
take one box of cake mix, which is
exactly what I have here, or a two layer cake recipe. These pans typically hold
about 4 to 5 cups of batter. Pour your batter into the pan. I'm going to use
an angled spatula to spread the batter evenly. It really helps to
get into those corners so you don't end up with a
lot of cake in the middle and the edges are too thin. You want a nice, even layer. I love this angled spatula
because it keeps my fingers out of the batter. Our cake is ready for the oven. Follow your recipe for
bake time and temperature. That can vary a
little bit though depending on the type of
cake that you're baking. My cake is done. I'm going to put it on a
cooling rack for about 10 to 15 minutes. Be patient. If you take it out of
the pan too quickly, it might be too soft
and it might break. Sometimes, your cake will
have a little bit of a dome. We'll need to remove this. This will be the
back of the cake, so we want it to lay flat
so it won't wobble or crack once we've started decorating. While it's still in the
pan, still slightly warm so be careful, I'm going
to take my serrated knife and I'm going to
level this dome. I'm just going to use
the edges of the cake pan as a guide to keep my knife
flat while I'm cutting. I'm going to let the
pan do the work for me. That was pretty easy, right? Not too bad. Next, we're going to take
our cake out of the pan. I'm going to put the cooling
rack against the cake pan. Now, hold these two
tightly then flip. Now, carefully lift the pan off. This is perfect. Look at all the
detail we have here. If you have some parts
that have cracked or stuck to the pan a bit, don't worry. We're going to decorate over
those imperfections with icing. I'm going to let this cake cool
completely for about 2 hours before I transfer the cake to a
cake board or serving platter. Once my cake is
cooled completely, we are ready to transfer
it to a platter or board. The most important
thing to remember is to hold everything
tightly and move quickly so that your cake doesn't crack. I'm going to hold the cake
board against the cake. Hold the board, the cake,
and the rack tightly and move quickly
to turn it over. Next, I'm going to
lift off the rack. Now, I'm going to hold the
cake board against the cake. I'm going to quickly
turn this over. You can serve this
on a cake board, or if you're using
a platter, just make sure it's not too heavy
so it doesn't crush your cake. If you have a cake lifter,
transferring is a lot easier. Just slide the blade under
the cake, lift, and place on your platter. Now that my cake is cooled,
it's time to ice and decorate. You'll need two
batches of buttercream for this, about 4 to 5 cups. First, we're going
to use 1 and 1/2 cups of thin consistency icing to
ice the sides and background. For this amount, I
added about 3 teaspoons of liquid to 1 and 1/2 cups
of our buttercream recipe. The rest, we'll color
to make our decorations. And those will need to
be medium consistency. To learn more about
buttercream icing consistency, make sure to check out
the video linked below. We'll have some really
good tips for you. To ice, I'm going to use
my angled spatula again. We're going to ice the
sides and the background of the dinosaur-- so the parts
between the arm and the neck, not the actual dinosaur. Now that my cake is iced,
we're ready to decorate. I printed a picture
of the dinosaur cake so I have that as a reference
while I'm decorating. There's a link below
with a printable version of this project, complete
with a handy reference picture and the colors that
I'm using for this cake. I'm going to show you how
to make three techniques for decorating this cake, but
you can use on other projects as well. I'm going to show you how to
make smooth details, lines, and star fill-in. For smooth details like the
spikes, the teeth, the mouth, and the eyeballs, we're
going to outline the shape and fill it in using a Tip 3. To smooth it out, you
can do two things. You can use a spatula and just
use a back and forth motion to smooth it out. These details are
small, so I recommend using a tapered spatula
because the tip is much smaller compared to
a regular angled spatula. You have much more
control, especially with narrow shapes like this. Or you can wait 30 minutes
and let your buttercream crust over just a little
bit, dab your finger in some cornstarch,
not too much, and just very lightly
pat the icing smooth. Just like that, super easy. Next, I'm going to show
you how to pipe lines. We're going to use this for
the mouth, nostril, the eyes, the nails, and the spikes. Were also piping lines all
over to create definition. I'm using Tip 3 and also Tip 5
for thicker lines for the belly and tail. To make a nice
clean lines, we're going to touch the
tip on one end, squeeze, and then
lift the tip slightly. Keep squeezing as we
let the line drop down. Now, touch the tip back
down to the cake surface. Stop squeezing and pull away. You can do straight
lines or curved shapes, it's all the same technique. Now, this might not be
perfect the first time, but don't worry, it takes
a little bit of practice. You might want to do a few
tries on a plate or paper towel just to get the hang of it. Our details are
done and it's really starting to come together. To cover this cake,
we are going to use the star fill-in
technique using Tip 18. It's really simple. I'm going to hold my bag
straight up and down. My tip is just a little
bit above the surface so my star can build. I'm going to squeeze,
stop, and pull away. Squeeze, stop, and pull away. If you pull away
before stopping, you would get a pull-out star. The tips will have
peaks and your design will look a bit shaggy. What we want is a classic star. When you're doing
your star fill-in, try your best to cluster
your stars together to make it look fuller and
to cover the cake underneath. Try as much as you can to keep
your pressure consistent so you have the same size
star every time. If your hands get
tired, take a break. There's no harm in that. Just keep your
cake and your icing covered and you
should be good to go. To complete this cake, I'm
going to use black candy coated chocolate. I'm just going to
place these carefully around the outer edge. You can also pipe a dot
border around the cake. If you're still perfecting
your icing technique, this step is great
for hiding your edges and it will make
it look cleaner. And that's it. This dinosaur cake was so much
fun to make and he is so cute. And now, you know all the steps. If you're a beginner
cake decorator, these are easy
techniques to try. When you get a little
bit more comfortable, you can put these all
together and make a cake just like this one. I guarantee it will be the
hit at your next party. If you enjoyed
this video, please subscribe to our channel for
more tutorials like this. And don't forget to leave us
a comment on what other videos you'd like to see
from our channel. I'm Stephanie from Wilton. Thanks for watching. [UPBEAT MUSIC]