Something to Avoid

I know silicone everything is all the rage - muffin cups, baking pans, breasts, etc. But I'm here to tell you, it is not that fabulous. First, the muffin cups. Not the muffin pans, which are nice I guess. The muffin cups are a bugger to clean. True, they are freestanding and you therefore don't need a paper liner or a muffin pan. But they are such a pain to clean. Don't bother. As for the muffin pans, I don't have one, but I will tell you that you have to put them on top of a cookie sheet to avoide dealing with the floppiness of it all.

This brings me to the cake pans. Aaron bought me one for my birthday. I'm not such a horrible human that I would trash a gift - it was thoughtful of him. But these cake pans are to be avoided! I baked a cake for my mom and used my one silicone pan and two metal pans. I sprayed all three, just to be safe. Problem one - taking the silicone pan out of the oven. If you just grab it by the sides, it folds in the middle, cracking your cake. If you grab one side and put your other hand under the bottom, you pop the middle of the cake up, cracking it. The only way to make this work is to put it on a cookie sheet, and that takes up extra room in the oven. So not only did my cake crack, but it also stuck to the pan. Not my two metal pans. Just the silicone pan, and I thoroughly sprayed all three!

For what these babies cost, they are not worth it. I can get two metal pans for as much as these silicone ones are and I don't have the inherent difficulties with those. The silicone is not any easier to care for, so I see no advantage other than it's new and different. Not always best!