The Wilton Anniversary Cake

                  -  Teaching Home Economics to Daughters -



This post is part of an ongoing series to give you an inside look at what I am doing to teach my 15 year old daughter (Amy) the art of homemaking skills. I will also share stories and memories of how I taught my older daughters (currently ages 21 and 22). You can expect to see these posts every Tuesday, here at The Legacy of Home.

Category - Baking.

July 1st was my wedding anniversary. We wanted to make a special cake. Amy and I chose to use a Wilton Cake pan for the occasion.

The Wilton company is known for it's outstanding cake decorating courses. They also sell books, DVD's, and a variety of baking resources.

We used their "Decorator Preferred Heart Pan Set." It consisted of 4 pans, from a tiny 6" pan, all the way to the largest one at 14".

The pans are made of Pure Aluminum, have straight sides and an extra thick design.

The first thing we did was look through our cookbooks for a good cake recipe. We have all been busy and worn out, so we finally decided to..... ummm.... buy a couple of box cake mixes! (shudder)  We figured, the whole point was to bake pretty cakes and decorate them. It shouldn't matter that we used an easy box mix, right? (smiles)

This decision made everything so easy! Here's what Amy and I did:

1. I sat on a chair and did nothing, while Amy baked and decorated the cakes. (smiles). She used all the pans, except the largest one. We didn't think our family could eat that much cake! So, Amy only needed 2 box mixes.

2. I got out of my chair long enough to show Amy how to grease and "flour" the pans.  Then I sat back down.

3. She used the 12" pan for a white cake mix. One box of batter filled that pan halfway full, and that was plenty!

4. Next, she used the 6" and 10" pans for a Swiss Chocolate cake. There was enough batter to fill both of these pans halfway full.

5. Baking was easy. The cakes looked marvelous! Amy let them cool on the counter. Then we headed out the door for her dance class.

6. When we got home, it was time for her to frost and decorate the cakes.

7. We had one little dilemma. We didn't have a plate large enough to hold this enormous cake! Amy came up with a solution - we took the largest cake pan (the 14") and placed it upside down on the table. We put a plate on top of that and then Amy started layering the cakes as she frosted them. 

8. She used chocolate fudge frosting (out of a can) for the bottom and top layers. Then she used confetti sprinkles!   She also used a "pink vanilla" frosting for the middle layer.

9. We bought a tube of white decorator icing. However, being the amateur that I am, I didn't think to buy one of those fancy decorating tips which would have made very pretty designs on the cake. Instead, Amy used the icing to make what looks like crepe paper designs across the sides of the cake.

10. The cake looks festive and pretty! It is our very first attempt at "real" cake decorating and Amy had a wonderful time.

11. But here is the best part - the pans are very easy to clean! 

12. The cake was delicious and looked lovely on the middle of our dining room table!

*Disclosure - Wilton provided me with -Decorator Preferred® Heart Pan Set -Item #2105-606 - for review purposes.*

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