KitchenMaus Plays with Unicorns
Now, I want to make one thing clear--I am not into unicorns. It's not that I have anything against them, it's just that I haven't really given much thought to them since I was 8 or 9. But, when the opportunity came along to test a unicorn-themed cake pan, I said, "Bring it on!" You see this pan, by Zanda Panda, is unlike anything else out there, and not because of the unicorns.
Zanda Panda's specialty molds are made of heavy-duty silicone and feature extremely detailed artwork that you can showcase on cakes, candies, Jell-O, crafts, and more. In fact, there's so much you can do with the molds, it's hard to choose where to start! First off, I went the easiest route, and just made a basic bundt cake in the unicorn mold.
Let me tell you, the unicorn pan is one big mold. It takes two boxes of cake mix to fill it up, making it terrific for parties, where you want to have more than enough cake to go around, but maybe don't want to make two whole cakes. The cake I made baked for 1 hour 20 minutes and came out evenly browned and lovely. I didn't decorate it, except with powdered sugar, and decided there were probably better ways to make use of the decorative nature of this pan.
Next, I decided I wanted to make an ice-cream cake, featuring a chocolate outer shell that would really show off the unicorn design. I didn't want to go to the trouble of actual tempering, or use the chocolatey-coating recipe on their website, so I did what's called a quick temper, and it worked out great. After painting on the chocolate and chilling the mold briefly, I filled it with layers of ice cream (coffee and vanilla-caramel in this case) and brownies. I then froze it until solid.
The real adventure began when it was time to unmold my unicorn creation! I will admit to it being pretty scary--I was afraid of cracking the chocolate or just generally destroying the whole thing. Turns out that if you slowly pull away the mold all the way around, just to loosen it, and then pull it off, inverting the mold in the process, then...voila! Beautiful cake! To make the presentation extra magical (we're talking unicorns, after all), I painted the chocolate with several shades of lustre dust. Seriously, by this time, I was pretty darn impressed with myself! Check out the photos on the right to see the different stages. Top-to-bottom: 1) unmolded, undecorated cake; 2) decorated cake; 3) unicorn closeup; 4) cut cake; 5) delicious slice of cake.
Now we have lots of dessert to eat at home, but I'm still interested in trying the mold again and doing a marzipan outer layer and filling it with cake and frosting, as Zanda Panda suggests with their no-bake-backwards-cake concept. It would be really beautiful to do this and paint it with bright, carousel colors! I'm also interested in their idea to make cookies with a cake mold. And, how about a mammoth dome of glistening Jell-O?!
If you're interested in making your own unicorn cake, here are a few tips:
- If you're going to make an ice-cream cake with a chocolate shell, keep the decorating to a minimum. The lustre dust will bead up on the chocolate since it will perspire once out of the freezer.
- The chocolate coating should be fairly thin. Mine was quite thick, and you can see how much it cracked when I cut it.
- If you want a cake that will cut smoothly, skip the chocolate and try rolled fondant or marzipan instead. Plus, you can make the fondant and marzipan fun colors.
- Make sure to loosen the mold all around before pulling it off. Just pull the silicone straight out, and work your way around. Then slowly invert the pan, revealing the cake. You may want a second pair of hands, or at least some moral support.
If you've used this pan, or purchase it and make something amazing, add your photos to our flickr pool so we can admire your creation and be impressed with your baking skill! And, if you have any tips, add a comment!
--KitchenMaus
Chris on August 22, 2008 at 05:06 PM
Interesting mold, but yeah...you weren't paid to write this at all...
andrew on August 23, 2008 at 03:03 PM
To Chris: Why would Amazon need anyone to pay them for reviews?
Sarita on November 20, 2008 at 06:26 PM
This is off topic but I was wondering where you got the big candle for the 3d cupcake you made?