Bake Yourself Up a Garden Party

A few months ago I posted about one of Amazon's most popular baking products, the cakesicle pan by Norpro. A super-fun idea for kids' birthday parties, weekend baking jaunts, and more adventures in the kitchen. G&S Design just came out with their own version of this pan, and let me tell you, the instant I saw it, I knew this was the one! The pan makes eight cookies or cakelets (or candy, Jell-O, or what have you) in shapes of daisies, tulips, and butterflies. So cute for garden parties, gal brunches, gift baskets, and just everyday fun.

I tested out the pan with sugar cookies and pancake batter. For my cookie round I just pressed sugar cookie dough right into the pan. I topped a few with sprinkles before baking and left the rest plain for decorating with icing later on. I also wanted to test out the sticks/handles, which you can insert either before baking or after. I put two in and left the rest for later. The cookies turned out adorable! Though, I advise you, learn from my mistakes. Tips:

• Even though the pan is nonstick, you MUST spray or butter it before adding your dough/batter. If you don't, it will be difficult to remove the final product, which is somewhat delicate.
• It's a draw on when to insert your sticks. On the one hand, they bake into the dough when you insert them before, making for a more stable handle. On the other hand, it is difficult to maneuver the pan into the oven--and in fact, it may make your pan too big for your oven. And, if you're using a thinner batter, you probably won't get them to stay very well. I might recommend cutting the sticks (24 come with the pan) in half. You'll have more, and they'll be a better length to deal with. Of course, you don't have to insert sticks at all, but that's another subject.
• Place the pan on a large, rimmed baking sheet before placing in the oven. The pan is very slim and a bit difficult to get off the oven rack safely. The extra sheet does the trick.
• Do not overfill the indentations. I made a big mistake with this. They should not be more than half full, otherwise the dough/batter will rise all over the place.
• Use a batter-based dough for cookies, if you can. It's much easier than pressing in the dough. Plus, they come out looking nicer.

For my second round I decided to have fun with pancake batter and make flower-shaped baked pancakes (no sticks). You could also just use cake batter, but I happen to love pancakes, day or night. I filled the indentations each half-way with batter and they baked up so cute I almost didn't want to eat them (almost..). I decorated a few of them with piped frosting and a fun decorating spray from Betty Crocker. I love the idea of this spray! It would be fun to get a few colors and do a bouquet of pancake flowers for brunch sometime.

Next up I'd like to try using it as a mold for chocolate lollipop flowers. Adorable!

--KitchenMaus