Bake Your Graduate a Delicious Cake with Wilton's Smiley Grad Pan

With graduation season fast approaching, baking pans like this are hard to come by in retail stores. Parties are being planned, the invitations have been mailed and people are scampering for cakes and special items for their graduates. I have used this pan, as well as other similar ones, from Wilton for a few years now and have nothing but great things to say about them. This one features a smiley face with a graduation cup and tassel and measures eleven inches wide by twelve inches high. It only requires one box of cake mix to make and even if you have relatively no experience with baking, you can make this cake look great.

Wilton Smiley Grad Pan
Product # 2105-2073
Suggested Price: $8.99

To start with you are going to need to get some type of a cake plate or thick piece of cardboard to place the baked cake on. This will allow you to decorate it without having to move it around and risk forming a crack in it. Make sure that you grease the inside of the pan well paying attention to the areas on the cap, tassel and facial features as these are the parts that generally tend to stick. Baking times will vary depending on the cake mix you are using but inserting a toothpick into the center and having it come out clean is a good indication that it is done. Allow it to cool completely before you try to flip it out of the pan.

Even though this has a good bit of detail to it, it isn't hard to decorate however I do suggest that you use a very soft icing in a piping bag instead of trying to apply a store bought can of frosting that can rip up the cake and leave crumbs in the frosting. Disposable piping bags can be purchased for under a dollar at craft and cake decorating stores and are extremely easy to use. To make it a little more personalized you can use school colors or add the graduation charm from the tassel to the cake; just make sure you remove it before you start serving it!