[Ghost of Spookie]

I was checking out Williams-Sonoma's site last night and came upon the Nordic Ware 3D apple-shaped baking pan that is on sale right now (Reg. $36. Now 19.99). Of course I immediately thought what a great cake baking pan for a witches apple! Perfect for a Snow White buffet theme or just a Rotten Apple cake. Not sure how long the pan has been on sale already, so don't wait too long if you are considering it. I'm assuming it was part of their fall baking items and so they are getting ready to make room for spring themed items, and I noticed it is now marked "Final Sale" so probably a closeout item. If you want to try to find it in your local store should the website sell out, the SKU is 61-3144037.

3D Apple Baking Pan

I just noticed that the pan is listed as an exclusive item. Nordic Ware does make a silver gray pan in the same shape which they sell on their website for $50, and I've seen it sold on Amazon by a few others resellers in the gray for $35. So not exactly exclusive unless you count the gold color. Both the gold WS version and the gray version are non-stick. The WS pricing is the lowest price I found however, and I've always been very pleased buying from them so happy to recommend.

 

[Bethany]

You could always do this option with cupcakes. Let me know how many mixes the cake pan takes & if they suggest Pound Cake.

 

[Saki.Girl]

that pan is cool

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

The above linked WS item webpage mentions under "Dimensions and More" that it has a 5-cup capacity. The WS page under "Summary" does mention using several varieties of cake mixes (assuming this is more for flavor suggestions) and gives a few suggestions for fillings or for decorating. I also found WS's "Use and Care" info pretty detailed. Hopefully this will all be included with the pan, along with the included recipe mentioned, when it arrives. Didn't see anything mentioned about using pound cake batter. I know a few people here have baked cakes in Wilton's 3D Skull Baking Pan and I imagine what worked well in that would be fine in this one. Undoubtedly properly prepping these pans for release is one of the most important steps. Customers gave this item 4-1/2 stars out of 5 so sounds like it worked well for people.

The Nordic Ware website for this pan has a few photos of frosted cakes using colored icing. Under their "Use and Care" section it recommends not filling the pan more than 3/4 full. I suppose it depends somewhat on the type of batter used (some rising more than others) but you definitely would like to avoid overflow.

Having seen your cakes here on this party section I bet you guys could turn out some smashing finished apple cakes WS or Nordic Ware would be happy to feature!

When my pan arrives I'll post the recipe it comes with.

Bethany, what a cute little worm! I'm sure one could use a straw to make a worm hole in the cake and have a gummy worm coming out.

 

[MummyOf5]

The apple pan looks like it would turn out a cake about the size of a softball or so?

 

[Saki.Girl]

I may need to get this for my snow white witch make the posion apple

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

The apple pan looks like it would turn out a cake about the size of a softball or so?

You'd think they would also include the dimensions for a finished cake. If the pan itself is 6-3/4 inches wide and 3 inches deep, giving up space for the side rims of the baking pan and thickness of the cast aluminum, I'm thinking when finished halfs are put together it will probably yield an apple somewhere around 5+ inches in diameter at it's widest. Had to look up a soft ball diameter and it's 3.5 to 3.8 so larger than that.

I liked the look of the "caramel apple with nuts" photo on the WS site for something not particularly halloween-like you could bake during the rest of the year for a dessert. I bet you could melt Kraft caramels like you do for dipping real apples in and pour it over the cake to give the same look and then push crushed nuts to the sides and have it all hold in place. I'm getting hungry thinking about it!

I picked up a bunch of granny smith faux apples from Dollar Tree a while back and some "doll" push-pin type half eyes for a project. Thought I'd turn one of my outdoor spooky trees into a witches spell cast tree. Each apple will be suspended on a tree branch and will have an eye, and the apples would be "alive". Eating an apple from that tree would make one all-seeing or something like that--maybe a Tree of Wisdom? Figured the "eyes" would show up better on green colored apples in the darkness. Besides we all know the red ones are the poison ones from Snow White's witch LOL. I could see doing a cake apple for a dessert table with an eye to go along with the tree. In fact I could see doing one display cake apple set among a few cake apples meant for eating that would use one of the battery operated Nite Eyes* for it's eye so it would be glowing. Easy enough to run the wiring through the apple and even carve out a place for the 9v battery to be inside the cake apple.

BTW the DT apples turned out to be pretty solid. I had wondered if i might be able to just push a doll eye into the apple but decided after a few attempts that I'll pull out the drill and make pilot holes to insert them. Plan to add some clay around the eyeball to create eyelids kind of and paint to blend with the apple. Think it will turn out nice.

*I used a pair of Van *****' Nite Eyes with a battery hooked up when we did our Reindeer wolf. They were pretty cool. Here's a link to them: http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/Nite-Eyes-C428.aspx We bought just the pair of the eyes and not the kit, and used our own wiring, yellow LEDs, a resister, and a 9v battery. For convenience on the Reindeer Wolf we also added a switch to turn it on and off for the evening. It wasn't that difficult to do and really did look cool.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

The Willams-Sonoma cake pan arrived yesterday. Looks great. Comes with a Spiced Apple Cake recipe and buttercream frosting recipe. Bake time is about an hour for the included recipe.

The widest inside dimension of the apple is apx 5 inches to 5-1/4 inches on the bottom half. The deepest part of the bottom half of the apple is apx 2-3/4 inches. Top portion, max depth is 2-1/2 inches. 5-cup mold.

The included recipe says the apple serves 10-12 people, and I am assuming these are "apple slices". I had to laugh because one of the reviewers on the WS site said it served 2-3 or one hungry person! Guess it all depends on who's cutting and how hungry you are!!

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

For anyone holding out until WS has a Free Ship Offer...it's here for Presidents's Day celebration. The cake pan is still on sale, Code: PRESIDENTS. Offer good thru Monday, 2/16 at 11:59pm ET, all orders, no minimum (see offer for details). Applies to the pan.

 

[frogkid11]

GOS - thanks for all the info on the cake pan. Do you happen to be planning to make a cake using your pan sometime soon? I'm trying to decide whether to buy it for this year. Part of me thinks these would be awesome little cakes to box up and give as party favors for this years Dark Side of Disney theme but also don't want to spend a week baking and decorating enough of these for each guest if they are going to be difficult to deal with. I figured I would ask your plans so you could finish your review with your own experience using the pan. I've made the big pumpkin cake where you use a traditional bundt pan by making two cakes and inverting one on top of the over - turns our perfectly, but that one cake is enough for the night.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Frogkid, I've actually been thinking about trying to make one before halloween to see how it turns out, maybe this week. Situation here is that my kitchen is mostly finished (remodel) but I've kept everything packed away still except some essentials as my panty and other storage cabinets don't have their shelving installed yet and most of our flooring still needs to be installed downstairs. It's been a long drawn out remodel (kind of remodel from hell in someways--water pipe breaking in concrete slab right before laying down wood flooring , wrong size cabinet ordered , guy cuts drywall for pantry area inside house instead of outside like told, plunging us in a world of drywall dust absolutely everywhere for example ).

Anyway I'll have to look at a cake box and see what I'll need and what I have available to use. We eat out, take in or microwave a lot! I do have a working oven though so it's within the realm of possibilty LOL. If I can pull it together to bake one, I know I won't decorate it like I would for halloween but at least we can judge the finished cake size. The cake pan apple is much larger than a fresh large apple you would eat from the tree though so not sure how many you'd want to make to hand out. Definitely much smaller than a pumpkin cake (I have one of those pans too). I think anyone who would get one as a party takeaway would probably love it though. I'll let you know if I can bake one this week.