Giant "Cupcake" Cake

So, my brother's birthday is March 25th, and since I knew I wasn't going to be at home to celebrate with him, I made him a cake a few days before (I realize this will be posted much later than March 25th, since I'm doing one post a day... but still).

I saw a post a few weeks back about this GIANT cupcake. My jaw fell in awe. I couldn't find out how to make it, so I started typing in "giant cupcake" in google. To my surprise I found the pan it was created in! Wilton's giant cupcake pan. Unfortunately I couldn't find it for any cheaper than 30$ plus shipping. I was so upset, there was no way I could afford to spend that simply on a cake pan.

I tried ebay, kijiji, all sorts of places I thought would have the pan for cheaper, but no.

As I was standing in line at HomeSense the other day returning my hair straightener, I saw this giant plush cupcake. After I got my money, I skittered onto the baking section. The first thing I saw was Wilton's gel colours. Ahhh I was soooo excited! I didn't think I would be able to find them. I then saw Wilton's texas cupcake size pan. If you've been to HomeSense, you'll know it's a little unorganized so I kept looking. I had a feeling it was going to be there. After a minute or so, I saw it. I SAW THE PAN! Ah, I quickly snatched it, in case a ninja or someone was behind me ;). There was no price on it, so I brought it to the front. She said it would be $25.99. Seeing as I had a $44.00 credit I didn't care THAT much. However, I guess the woman couldn't find another pan, so it ended up coming to $19.99!!! I was sooo happy. I bought it of course.

My mom and I went to No Frills and bought some cake mix. At first I didn't know how much I was going to need, since there was no price on it, there also weren't instructions either telling what temperature to cook it on or for how long. So, we bought one cake box, I wasn't going to make a cake from scratch because I had already made gnocchi/pop tarts that day. I settled for the extra fluffy white cake, and cream cheese frosting.

When I got home, I immediately went upstairs and tried looking for blogs with directions on how long to cook it for. I found that you should cook it for 55 minutes on 350 degrees. Well, down I went to the kitchen and turned the stove on.
Poured my mix into the pan. At around 45 minutes I looked into the stove and the cake looked ready. (As you all know each stove is different, so the person who wrote 55 minutes may have an older stove, or just one that doesn't heat up as well, I've always found my mom's stove cooks things 5 or so minutes faster than other stoves).

I let the cake cool for a bit, tried taking it out... and... my heart broke. I almost started to cry. The cake was in pieces. I was so so upset. The top came out in two pieces and was definitely able to be saved, the bottom though, there was no hope. This was the second cake in ONE week that didn't turn out (you'll see the next cake in my post tomorrow). I was so angry at Duncan whatever company made this cake. I decided, I didn't want the white cake box anymore, it might of been since there were egg whites being used and not full eggs that it didn't turn out.
At this point I was still working on my gnocchi, so my mom went back to the store and bought two boxes of French vanilla cake mix. When she came home, I immediately started mixing because my brother and his girlfriend were supposed to be coming over soon for cake. At this point, I decided I would bake the top and the bottom separately. I had noticed that the bottom was a lot more moist than the top so this time cooking it differently might of done the trick. On another note, it says it's a non-stick pan, butter that sucker up.

I cooked each cake separately. Both for 40 minutes on 350 degrees. Each one I had to take out I prayed it would come out perfectly. My mom took the spatula I don't know how many times around, and we buttered the pan like champs. THANKFULLY they came out wonderfully this time.

The food colouring came out a little girlier than expected, but my brother didn't seem to mind :). The cake was so moist and ugh just so good!
This was one of those time's where I felt let down by myself, but I knew I couldn't give up because the outcome would be worth it. I'm glad I tried again and didn't give up, I really was happy with the end result.
Enjoy!