Spooktacular Halloween Baking with Wilton {Review & Giveaway}

What is not to love about baking, putting aside the mess you have to clean up afterward? Not only is it a fun activity to share with your children,  you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor with something sweet and delicious.  And let’s not forget that nothing beats the wonderful aromas that fill your kitchen as your decadent treats are baking. Mmmm….

It is no secret that Wilton knows baking. You can easily get lost  in the Wilton website. The onslaught of ideas for virtually any occasion (or non at all), tips, recipes and unique products to create these works of art can entertain a baker for hours on end. One of my favorites places to loose track of time is the Wilton Celebration Shop which has some frightfully good ideas for Halloween. If you are looking for some inspiration, check out these kid’s Halloween party ideas.

Wilton sent me many of their products so I could try out some of their options for Halloween baking. I decided to make some cupcakes and mini skull cakes utilizing some of these fun items.

With one yellow cake mix I was able to make 12 standard cupcakes and four skulls with the non-stick mini skulls pan. I probably could have made an additional cupcake had I not used quite as much batter for the skulls. Of course the cupcakes were easy but I wasn’t as sure about the skulls and how easy they would be to slice so they can lay flat.  These worries were for nothing because not only did the tops come off easily, they also created little cake “muffin” tops .

My son thoroughly enjoyed holding a top, exclaiming that they were so cute and later eating it! I loved this non-stick pan and would like to get this gingerbread and trees pan for Christmas. The cakes baked up very nicely and getting them out was a breeze!

Decorating the cupcakes was extra fun with the green/black striped icing. My only word of caution is that the entire tube could probably only decorate around 5 cupcakes if you want decent coverage. These tubes would work great for accents for cupcakes, cookies or the cakes. I purchased a Wilton 12 piece cupcake decorating set from Target and wished I had gotten something with a coupler ring included, which would allow me to securely attach the tip to the icing tube. I adapted and instead used some tape. While it created a seal that worked, it wasn’t ideal.

I love the haunted manor cupcake wraps ‘n picks. You could take just a plain cupcake and really make it stand out with the wraps which look like a wrought iron gate and picks featuring a haunted house and moon with bats. It doesn’t get any easier than this and it would be a great solution for someone who doesn’t have the time or inclination to spend a lot of time decorating their cupcakes.

For the skulls I used Wilton’s Confectioners Sugar Glaze Icing recipe and topped it off with leftover icing from the cupcakes and spider mix sprinkles. Next time I’d like to try a chocolate cake mix and see if  the black showing underneath creates a spookier looking skull.

Apparently I just couldn’t help decorating my skulls to have smiling faces. Perhaps they are happy that they look so tasty or maybe they are excited for Halloween. (Too bad they won’t last that long…)

Wilton also sent me this spooky Haunted Mansion Cupcake Stand which will come in very handy for my sister’s upcoming Halloween party to display some more scrumptious cupcakes.

In addition to the cupcake stand, here are all of the Wilton products I received to create a spooky masterpiece.

1. Nonstick Mini Skulls Pan
2. Haunted Manor Halloween Baking Cups
3. Haunted Halloween 3 Piece Cookie Cutter Set
4. Haunted Manor Cupcake Wraps ‘N Pix
5. Green/Black Striped Icing
6. Spider Mix Sprinkles
7. Haunted Mansion Cupcake Stand

Unfortunately many of these items are currently out of stock.   Check out your local Target for Wilton baking items. While there I found many in both the regular baking section and the seasonal section. You can also find a vast selection at Michaels. But for all of you in despair, there is hope. How would you like to win this same Wilton Halloween package?

{ Giveaway }

Win this wonderful prize package containing all seven Wilton baking items shown above to make your Halloween just a little bit sweeter!

MAIN ENTRY: Visit Wilton and tell me something you found in the Christmas Shop that you would love to have for your upcoming holiday baking!

Want more entries? (Don’t deny your sweet tooth!) After answering my question do any of the following and leave a comment telling me what you did. Each is worth one entry unless otherwise noted. Your comment is your entry so please leave the appropriate number of comments for each extra entry.

-Subscribe to A Piece of Cake blog by Wilton
-Follow Wilton on twitter and tweet about the giveaway
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-Follow my blog publicly
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-Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway

Win a fun Wilton Baking Prize Package for Halloween @babylovingmama from @wiltoncakes http://tinyurl.com/yjvgv33 #giveaway PLS RT!

-Fave me on Technorati
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-Blog about this contest and link back here and to Wilton (3 entries)

This contest will end on 10/22/09 at 11:59 pm CST. U.S. residents only. The winner will be drawn via random.org. Given the seasonal nature of this giveaway, the winner will only have 24 hours to respond to winning notification email before I draw another winner or do a live giveaway.

Disclosure: I received these items for the purposes of this review but no other type of compensation was received.  Some items such as the cake/icing ingredients and Wilton cupcake decorating kit were purchased by me. This has no bearing on my completely honest review above.  The opinions and experiences I’ve shared with these products are my own and yours may differ.