Collecting/Handpainting/Buy/Sell/Trade
When my kids were little, I always baked and decorated their yearly Birthday Cakes. Choosing different styles for each of them as their interests changed. This is where my collecting started and how it grew. Within a few years, I started to hang the Character Pans on the wall in the kitchen ... to keep them from being bent or scratched in a cabinet. Then, as time passed and my collection grew ... I decided they looked so " blah " just hanging on the wall (all silver) and started handpainting them in bright colors. Oh ... the difference this made was remarkable! As I handpainted each one with care ... in the colors of the original character they represented, something odd started to happen! Where they were all so plain looking before painting them ... suddenly, each one stood out seperately from all of the others and became a seperate work of art!
Now, my kids are all grown and gone, but ... my Character Cake Pan collecting has become a wonderful hobby! They cover two walls in my kitchen and three full size walls in my dining room! I have about 400 now. Not all are painted yet ... I'm a slow meticulas painter and always have two or three that I'm working on.
I have all of Wilton's wedding cake pan sets, the fountain, columns etc. too ... because I baked and decorated wedding cakes and various other types of cakes for family and friends for 40 years. But ... the character pans are my favorites! Have some very old ones from the 70's like Charlie Brown (actually he's a 1950), The Count, a Hippo (with a Red and white polka dot tie), of course, Hollie Hobbie, Fred Flintstone, Pillsberry Poppin Fresh, a Batman Logo, Super Hero Pan (can make either Superman or Batman with this pan!), a Jack-o-lantern, a Fat Car, a Cowboy Boot, a Big Fish, a Pirate, Tweety, a Little Mouse, a Christmas Tree, Pluto, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, a Guitar, Pink Panther, Wonder Woman, about 3 Clowns, Van, Easter Bunny, Ziggy, TeeShirts, a Spaceship, High Flyin' Witch, 1982-Little Cottage, 1983-Cathy, 1983-Lambchop, 1983-Smurf and Surfettes, a 1984-Cabbage Patch Girl, A 1984-Braveheart Lion, a 1984-Mug, 1985-Montgomery Moose and his Cheerleader, Barney, several Teddy Bears, 1987 Pumpkin, 1987-Golf Bag, 1987-Question Mark, 1987 Football Player, 1987-
Butterfly, 1988-Alf, 1988 Boo Ghost, 1988-Cuddles The Cow, 1988-Friendly Dinasaur, Big Bird, Little Ducky, Ninja Turtle (both Face and Full Body), Super Mario, 1990-Lamb,Bart Simpson and Snowman, A 1992-Troll, Bugs Bunny, Santa (carrying a gift) are just a few of the many Character Pans I have. Most of my Pans are Wilton however ... I found a few very nice Character Pans by Amscon. And EZ Baker put out a Christmas Tree that's hard to match with any of Wiltons! It has ornaments on it and was really fun to paint!
I enjoy Handpainting my pans! Of course, they are not all painted yet, but ... quite a few of them are. I have been wondering for some time now if there are other people who collect Character Cake Pans as a Hobby ... like I do, so I thought I would start a blog to find out if there's anyone else as interested in this Hobby as I am! I would like to Buy, Sell &/or Trade Character Cake Pans and have been thinking of setting up some sort of Forum to be able to do this. Appreciate any comments or feedback.