Preface | Musings on Cauldrons & Ovens

If you know anything at all about me you probably know about my affinity for kitchens and kitchen decorating in Wizard101. So, something that just popped into my head today I was inspired recently, what with Halloween approaching swiftly, when I began to think about the use/creation of cauldrons, ovens, and fire pits for your kitchens. (I emboldened this because despite my inclusion of cauldrons I really mean kitchens, not potion making rooms or anything like that even though they have a very “halloween” kind of vibe also. That’s very different…..ok maybe only slightly different….ok fine, when it comes to the cauldrons you can pretty much apply these same ideas for a potion-making room as well.) I feel like it’s something that a lot of players don’t really think about too much, because we don’t actually eat. In fact, I didn’t talk about it much way back when I wrote Elements of the Kitchen, which I think is a prime example of that fact. However, stoves, cauldrons, fire places, and fire pits are some of the most fun items to use in a kitchen or restaurant. They can allow for so much creativity! In this article I’m gonna take you through my favorite ovens/firepits/stoves/cooking things and how to work with them so that you can use them to their fullest potential.

The Options

Here are a few of my all time favorite….appliance? cooking implement? oven, cauldron, and fire-y options for the kitchen (in no particular order)! There are a few more items in-game that I don’t have listed here (like the Bubbling Cauldron, for instance), but I left them off because I felt like they leaned a little too much towards potion making. (You guys should know by now, though, that I’m a thorough researcher and writer. As if I’d leave something like that off. Check out the end of this post for those!)

Foul Cauldron/Fire Pit & Kettle

Furniture | Bazaar

Outdoor | Bazaar

So something interesting about these two furniture items is that they are almost identical in design, however, they’re slightly different tones of stone and, obviously, one has a cauldron and one has a kettle. This cauldron is on the simpler side and doesn’t have any animation, which is a little sad. It can also be a little tough to use because of its large base. However, it’s definitely a very striking cauldron if used in the right situations. More on that later though!

Lion Cauldron

Furniture | Bazaar

I just love this cauldron and it actually shows up in the bazaar relatively often. It has a lovely animation where it begins to steam and bubble. It’s subtle but just the right amount of pizazz visual interest- especially if your kitchen has other moving parts. This cauldron is also the perfect size to glitch into the Rough Fireplace.

Stone Oven

Furniture | Sold by Zhi Lan; Bazaar

We do have a variety of really oven-like options- for example the pot bellied stove -but the only one of those that I really like is the stone oven. Yes, I do realize it looks like a pizza oven but It has some really great, practical uses and looks amazing when glitched with the frying pan!

Mooshu Cooking Hearth

Furniture | Available in the Mooshu Furniture Set 3

This is a little situational, I know. However, I feel like its leafiness helps it be a little more versatile. This is one of my favorite housing items right now, because it’s just so beautifully designed. The detail is just amazing. (The bottom of the pot genuinely looks like metal to me. Just look at the age spots!) Its animation is pretty subtle but the item’s aesthetic value makes up for the subtlety. It’s actually really balanced in that way.

Rough Fireplace

You can do so much with this fireplace! It’s literally so versatile I think I’ve used it in at least three houses, including my first. This is an old housing item and it’s so interesting to compare this with, say, the Mooshu Cooking Hearth above in terms of design quality, but I’ve never minded its ruggedness. As there isn’t much of a fire effect here you can easily glitch other items into the cauldron space to make up for it.

Campfire

Decoration | Sold by Ea’arik; Bazaar

Talk about “tiny, but mighty! Add this to any non-animated cauldron or fireplace and add a little pizazz! However, in order to do that you’ll have to glitch it. Feeling disheartened? Never fear, we shall talk about it in a moment!

Glitching

The Oven and the Frying Pan

Ah I love this one. I love the realism that it brings to the kitchen! While the Frying Pan is a little more difficult to find, it’s well worth it. This glitch is really just a matter of where you want your frying pan to hover/how far inside the oven you want it to be. You don’t necessarily have to use it with the Stone Oven either. Float your pan above any cauldron and the effect remains the same.

The Rough Fireplace and the Lion Cauldron

I feel like this is a wonderful way to jazz up the rough fireplace! I know, I know, it’s a little hinky looking because of the poles, but one gets used to them.

The Foul Cauldron and the Campfire/The Fire Pit, Kettle, and Campfire

I love these combinations, because it adds life to two really neat furniture pieces. Whichever you opt for you can place in your kitchen the result looks great if you do it right! So, I wanted to teach what is probably the most complex of any of these glitches and really, even then it’s not that complex at all:

Slightly Less Quick Tip | Campfires and Cauldrons

• Ok! So to start you are going to need to gather all of your items. Obviously you’ll need a campfire and a foul cauldron (or a kettle, but for our purposes right now we’ll use a cauldron), but you’ll also need two Tatami Mats and a Small Wooden Table. I found that this table was at the perfect height for our purposes and it can be purchased from Zhi Lan in Mooshu.

• Set up your table just like I have above in the spot where you want your cauldron to be. You’ll start by setting up your tatami mats in the traditional glitching manner and then placing your campfire on whichever end. Using the mat that the campfire sits on, move the whole thing onto the table. The most important thing to remember when placing your items is that your aim is to have the campfire in the center of the foul cauldron.

• What’s cool about this glitch is that you don’t have to move the cauldron into position by glitching it with mats. All you have to do is click and move into position, just like anything else! Isn’t the end effect awesome?

…Bonus Section? Cauldrons for Potion Rooms

I felt remiss leaving these cauldrons off entirely, really because they’re just so cool looking. So, in short, here are my favorite cauldrons for potion rooms!

• Bubbling Cauldron | Available in all three Halloween packs
  • I’ll admit that with this one, frankly, you can use it in kitchens as well and I totally have. I just feel like it really soars in a potion room.

• Halloween Cauldron | Available in all three Halloween packs

• Witchdoctor Cauldron | Available from Grub Guardian

Conclusion

Well, I certainly hope that you now have enough information on cauldrons to either build yourself a dashing kitchen or a dastardly potion room or some amalgamation of the two. Any of these can easily be creep-ified used for Halloween decorating because of Wizard101’s incredible selection of spooky decor- the corner cobwebs are a favorite. Thank you for reading, as always, and I hope you all have a lovely Halloween, both in game and outside of it!