Sesame Street birthday cakes – character cake pans

If you have a little confidence not only in your cake baking skills, but your cake decorating skills, then maybe a character cake pan is the choice for your Sesame Street birthday cake. There are options for almost every character out there, so you can pick your – mm, your child's – favorite and make it the focal point of the table.

Wilton lists several shaped cake pans on its site as being current, including

• Abby Cadabby
• Bert & Ernie
• Big Bird (2)
• Cookie Monster (2)
• Elmo (2)

Other shaped pans that you could try if you're working with a second theme include a 3D rubber duck, book, palm tree, guitar or t-shirt. They could work with a bathtime, beach or music theme for your Sesame Street birthday party.

You will need some special tools beyond the cake pan for this type of cake, specifically cake decorating tips and likely some special food colorings. (You will not be able to get Elmo red or Oscar green using regular food coloring.) When you buy the pan, it should come with directions telling you just what size tips and what colors to use to get the right look, along with really specific directions on how to make the stars, shells and other details.

My biggest challenges in doing these kinds of cakes have always been 1) getting the cake cleanly out of the pan and 2) keeping my stars the same size.
The first can be hidden by the frosting, fortunately; the second, you just have to learn some patience to go slow and steady.

But what if the Sesame Street character you want isn't offered right now? Well, I started checking around on eBay and discovered that there are different pans for Big Bird that came out more than 20 years ago, along with pans for Oscar, Ernie by himself and the Count. These are frequently available at eBay, both for auction and in eBay stores. I've also seen pictures where people have used the Elmo pan and just changed up the colors and made a Zoe cake. You could do the same to turn a Cookie Monster cake into Telly or the full-body Elmo into Grover.

In all, the shaped cake pans can give you a great themed cake for a Sesame Street birthday, just be sure you're willing to make the commitment in time and are confident in your skill. And post those pictures to flickr so we can all see how fabulous your picture turned out! Leave a link in the comments if you like.