Birthday Cakes and Ancient Baking Pans

Welcome back!

I must apologise for not posting any new kids party ideas this week. I had a lot of problems with my computer; when it eventually decided to work again, I found to my dismay that programs I have used for the past 6-7 years, were a little outdated and did not want to install.

One of my favourite graphics programs actually “refused” to install because I do not have Internet Explorer 5 on the computer… Imagine that! For the past few years it worked perfectly with all the new updates and versions that came and gone, but now when I need it, it wants to revert back to ancient times.

It made me think about the old ring cake tin I have in my cupboard, but unlike the software on my computer, this tin still works perfectly fine when I use it.

I first used this tin in 1975 and I actually used it on top of a gas stove to bake cakes.

Although it seems difficult to believe that this “contraption” could yield perfect cakes, it did. From the small gas stove I progressed to electric ovens and have baked literally hundreds of cakes with this ring tin.

Here is a photo of the last birthday cake I made using the ring tin:

Normally when I use the ring tin for these doll cakes, I stuff the hole with foil to keep the doll in position and to give a base for the frosting around her. This time, however, I used lots of marshmallows to keep her in position.

I learned to bake and decorate this doll cake from the Children’s Birthday Cake Book that I bought 29 years ago and am still using today.

Apart from all the good hints and tips on preparing your cake tins, preparing the cake itself before frosting, even showing you how to cover round and square cake boards, the main attraction of this book is the many beautiful but easy to make cakes. Although many of the cakes may seem outdated if compared with all the wonderful creations one find these days, the cakes are still bound to delight children.

There are chapters on storybook and nursery rhyme favourites like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet and a few others, animals, sport, a section for boys and girls, ice cream cakes and even a whole chapter dedicated to number cakes.

Number cakes can be made without buying all those expensive number cake tins that you only use once or twice in your child’s life. One or two round and / or bar cakes can be turned into any number cake you want for your child’s birthday.

I call this method the “cut and paste” cake method because you literally cut the round and bar cakes and then paste it together with frosting to form a number before starting your master piece.