Nordic Ware Castle Bundt Pan & Fondant Decorations

Disclosure: Grandma Bonnie's Closet has not been compensated for the following product review. I received a product sample for review purposes only.

"Grandma has a new cake pan!" I can hardly wait to tell you about this new Nordic Ware Bundt Cake Pan I requested to review. One day while looking for cake pans online I came across Chef's Corner Store and this fabulous Castle Bundt Cake Pan.

I was totally excited when I saw this Castle pan. I love making cakes for my grandchildren. Can you imagine a castle cake with knights, horses, and dragons? Or How about a castle cake with princesses and fairies? My grandchildren are sure to have some very memorable birthday cakes in the near future. 

So now that I got my pan I wanted to use it correctly. I read the instructions that came with the pan.  I also was given some very good tips from Stephanie at the Chef's Corner Store.

Tips for getting a good release from your detailed bundt pan. 

1. Wash you pan thoroughly with warm soapy water and dry well.

2. Coat your pan with a baking spray. The baking spray should contain flour in it. Very Important! Use a pastry brush to evenly distribute the spray into every crevice. Make sure there are no globs of flour or pools of oil in the pan. 

3. Fill the pan about 3/4. Roll the pan from side to side to coat the walls of the pan above the batter line. This helps the cake to rise up evenly on the sides. 

4. Tap the pan on a table or counter to release any air bubbles.

5.Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes after baking. No shorter or longer than 10 minutes. 

6. Pick up the pan with hot pads. Gently shake the cake sided to side. Use a plastic spatula to release any cake sticking along the edges. 

7. Invert the pan on a cooling rack or plate. Allow to finish cooling.

Now, on to baking the cake. I followed the above instructions very carefully. I had a positive attitude that this was going to work. 

While my cake was baking I started to think about all the times the cake stuck to an ordinary cake pan. "Oh, dear! How can this cake possibly not stick to such a detailed cake pan? I have never used baking spray before. I usually use butter and flour to coat my pans. I was pretty nervous. When I took the cake out of the over I got even more nervous. Ten minutes is a long time to sit and fret about this cake. Then the ten minutes were over! Time to invert my cake. I gave it a side to side shake .Loosened one spot on the edge. Flipped the cake onto a plate and shouted with joy!

The cake released with out one crumb sticking! I am so thrilled. Early that morning in anticipation of baking this cake I made a few fondant decorations to decorate the cake with. Thinking a beach sandcastle theme. 

I sculpted the fondant by hand and painted it with watered down food coloring. I may be doing a DIY on this technique in the near future. 

The sand around the base of the cake is ordinary brown sugar. I spread it around and sprinkled some on top.

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Readers, What do you think about this bundt pan? What is your favorite cake flavor or decoration?

Grandma Bonnie's Closet received the product mentioned above for free. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

DIY: Turtle Birthday Cake

Little Roo's First birthday is coming up soon. While he was visiting we had a little birthday party for him. I love making my grand children's birthday cakes. My daughter has wanted to make it a tradition to make the birthday cakes for her children. I thought that was a fantastic idea so we decided she would make Little Roo's first birthday cake with only technical advice from grandma.

She started with three layers. We then decided to remove one layer as it seemed a little on the tall side. 

Then she crumb coated with butter cream icing. 

Next my daughter rolled out white fondant and draped it gently over the cake.

press the fondant to the sides of the cake starting at the top and slowly working down. Ease the folds and wrinkle out as you move down. Trim off the excess. 

She then added cut out fondant pieces by wetting the back of the cut outs with a bit of water.

Little Roo and Pooh Bear.

Crumbs are the best right?

Her first cake came out beautiful. What do you think?

Making a Dinosaur Cake

Last weekend my grandson turned 2 years old. I had planned to make him a Magic School Bus Cake. At the last minute he asked for a dinosaur cake. I love making cakes so I jumped right in changed gears and this is what I came up with.

I made a thin cake for the base and lightly frosted it. I spread a layer of brown sugar to look like sand.

I baked two ten inch round cakes and cut the parts from these two cakes.

Then a light layer of butter cream icing to hold the fondant in place. I got so busy with the fondant at this time. I forgot to keep taking photos. I will try next cake to take photos of placing the fondant.

I put the rolled fondant on in three pieces. One for the body, one for the tail and one for the head. The spots and spikes are made from dried fondant.

We all enjoyed Little Bug Birthday. Thank you for stopping by to visit. Have a great week.