Wilton Aluminum 3D Sports Ball Cake Pan Set, Made Without PFAS | Natural Anodized Aluminum Bakeware, Even Heating & Rust-Resistant, Includes 2 Half-Sphere Pans, Perfect for 3D Shaped Cakes

I am not much of a baker and don't really have any cake decorating experience beyond "cover the whole thing in frosting," but I thought I'd try out this pan for my 3-year-old's birthday. He is obsessed with dinosaurs right now. When the cake pan came in the mail he was super excited and wanted me to make it right away. I was concerned about it turning out correctly so I read the directions that came with the pan carefully, plus watched a bunch of videos first. Wilton has some very good directions; I'd recommend looking at their videos on YouTube for pointers. I made the cake using Wilton's butter cake recipe plus a double batch of Wilton's standard vanilla buttercream icing recipe. For the decorations, I bought the items suggested on the pan's directions: frosting tips (#3, #5 and #18), icing bags, and several colors of Wilton's icing dyes. Also super important: based on tips I saw from other bakers, I sprayed the heck out of the pan with their "Bake Easy" spray before putting in the batter. It took quite a bit longer to cook than the recipe said it would, but I wanted to be sure the cake was not raw in the center. I let it cool on a rack overnight and then followed the directions in their online videos for how to get it out of the pan -- it came out flawlessly. I followed the directions on the pan to do the decoration. Not going to lie, the decoration took a long time, and doing all those tiny green frosting stars hurt. But it came out very well and my son was totally "wooooowwww my dino cake!!" about how it turned out. Very happy with the results.

Pan worked great, just make sure to spray and flour the bottom.

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The pan needs to be well greased and floured but once you figure that out, it works well! It doesn’t seem like it would be very scratch resistant but I did not use metal utensils with it so I did not have a problem with that. The cake baked really well. It is a very lightweight pan. It was smaller than I expected but it made for a cute cake! The directions for decorating that it came with were awesome!

Instructions are super clear, and it was easy even for someone like me using tips for the first time and having no prior experience and maybe shaky baking ability! I did different colors than the instructions called for because my 5 year old wanted a purple dinosaur, my green. Skipped the belly on accident, so I just went with it, but that was my mistake. The instructions told me to do it and I got in a groove making stars and ignored it. Oops!While it may seem pricey, overall it’s still cheaper than buying from a bakery and you can use any cake from scratch or mix you choose (I used Betty Crocker triple chocolate fudge). I was nervous I would need more than one mix, but, one mix is perfect for the capacity of the pan.I did have some trouble releasing it from the pan, but nothing that an icing bandage couldn’t fix. Still, I think if I make it again, I will use flour instead of an oil spray to see if that helps. The instruction page is super helpful, so definitely keep it! Also, the sticker for pricing was extra difficult to get off (Dawn, oil, and scratching still didn’t remove it and I had to rewash again, anyway!). Minor issues all things considered, and I’d still recommend this pan AND the Wilton instructions because of how beginner friendly they are.

My dad and grandma managed to make it look like a cute dino with 0 cake decorating experience. Super easy to use!

This pan is for Mom's 96th birthday party this weekend. Her first grandson will be here to celebrate with us and he was a huge dinosaur fan as a child, so it's fun to be "retro". Family is the greatest blessing EVER and Wilton makes is fun and beautiful with all they. have to offer for decorating and enjoying family gatherings..

My son is in his dino phase and loved this cake. It was easy to use, and the design suggestions made it super easy to decorate! He loved the cake. I would recommend cutting the top of the cake before you flip it over to decorate so it lays flat. Decorate the sides first to save yourself time and trouble but it will be a hit for sure. I made 3 cakes with it for our all week celebrating with family and friends. I wouldn't recommend putting it in the dishwasher. (PS I am not a baker so the fact that I pulled this off speaks volumes for the product!)