This month, every Wednesday is a Does It Work? Wednesday. That's when we find hot new products and we try them before you buy them. First up, something for your sweet tooth.
It's called the Giant Cupcake Pan. It claims to make a massive, 8-inch by 8-inch, 3-D cupcake that is big enough to feed the whole party and easy enough for anyone to use.
The Giant Cupcake Pan has molds for both the bottom and top of a giant cupcake. The directions are simple. Grease the pan. Pick a box of your favorite cake mix. Mix it up as usual, and split the batter into both molds. Then, it's into the oven. It takes about an hour and when it's done you let it cool for about 30 minutes.
After cooling, both sides easily come out and hold their shape. Now the fun part, there are so many different ways to decorate this giant cupcake. But for our first try, we keep it simple and just use frosting out of a can. To make it just right, we trim the top and bottom halves, to make them flat, so they fit together. Then, we put icing in between the two layers, kind of a tasty glue, and then frost the top.
My first attempt is not the prettiest cupcake, but with practice I'm sure I could get better. One of Troubleshooter Diane Wilson's colleagues used this pan, and his kids nibbled off the cupcake for a week! Bottom line, the Giant Cupcake Pan gets a giant thumbs-up. It's easy to use, and clean up. They only cost $30, and they're starting to show up at Target and other stores.
And it's great to experiment with. Some people use two boxes of cake mix, so they have a little left over for regular cupcakes. Others just cook up the bottom half, then freeze ice cream in the top mold, and have an ice-cream-cupcake.
If you're up for the challenge, show us your attempt at making a giant cupcake. Just e-mail Troubleshooter Diane Wilson and share your pictures with her.
