This is more of a discussion post than a review I’ll admit, but since I reference my own experiences and several products in this post it made sense to post it under reviews.
Silicone bakeware appears to be the next big thing in baking innovation, especially if the ever increasing amounts of silicone bakeware stocked by Lakeland are anything to go by! And I can see why, silicone is pretty amazing stuff to cook with. Silicone utensils are safe for use on non-stick items and silicone bakeware really utilises all the advantages silicone has to offer.
Silicone is great at transferring heat evenly, which means your cakes always have an even bake and its non-stick properties ensure that half your cake isn’t left behind. This also means you don’t have to spend ages greasing and lining tins although it does help to lightly grease some bakeware, especially the complex shapes that are available. Silicone is also much easier to store than conventional metal bakeware as it can be squashed into a box which helps when space is at a premium, the flexibility of silicone as a material also allows for more complex designs which wouldn’t necessarily be possible with paper cases or metal bakeware. Finally the major advantage especially for cupcake bakers is that it’s reusable, which is very economical if like me you bake a lot of cupcakes. Silicone bakeware is also safe for use in the freezer and microwave in addition to oven use, which is great because you can use one container to make all manner of things!
So far I’ve only found one downside to silicone cake cases and that is that you have to make sure they are 100% dry before you pack them away. If they aren’t completely dry it is possible for them to grow mould in storage. This happened to me with my first set of cupcake cases, in the end I had to throw them away as the mould actually stained the surface.
Currently I have 2 sets of silicone cake cases, both of which are of non-standard design (meaning they are different to normal cake cases). The first set are heart shaped and the second set are shaped like flower pots!
Heart shaped
I brought these from Lakeland; however I can’t link you to them since they don’t appear to have any in stock at the moment. But if you wait until Valentines I’m sure they’ll be back! These are pretty cute, the only problem I have is that I’m never sure how much I should fill them which does mean that some of my cakes rise over the top of the case, this results in the heart shape becoming a bit lost. Other than that minor issue, which is entirely of my own making, I have no problem with these.
I brought these from Lakeland; however I can’t link you to them since they don’t appear to have any in stock at the moment. But if you wait until Valentines I’m sure they’ll be back! These are pretty cute, the only problem I have is that I’m never sure how much I should fill them which does mean that some of my cakes rise over the top of the case, this results in the heart shape becoming a bit lost. Other than that minor issue, which is entirely of my own making, I have no problem with these.
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| Please excuse the quality of this picture! But you get a general idea of the cake size/shape |
Flower Pots
These are also available from Lakeland and are brand new, and I have to say that I love them. They are adorable, and look fantastic when the cakes are iced and decorated. These are actually muffin cases rather than cupcake cases and are much easier to fill than the heart ones. Just fill them up to the base of the rim, this seems to be enough. They can be a little tricky to eat out of, but that problem is easily solved by removing the cake from the case. I’d suggest leaving any cakes made in these un-iced if you don’t want mucky fingers!
These are also available from Lakeland and are brand new, and I have to say that I love them. They are adorable, and look fantastic when the cakes are iced and decorated. These are actually muffin cases rather than cupcake cases and are much easier to fill than the heart ones. Just fill them up to the base of the rim, this seems to be enough. They can be a little tricky to eat out of, but that problem is easily solved by removing the cake from the case. I’d suggest leaving any cakes made in these un-iced if you don’t want mucky fingers!
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| Just to illustrate how much the cake rises when filled to the base of the rim. |
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| With a muffin baked in a standard muffin case. Sadly I didn't think to take a side-view of this arrangement to illustrate the sizes. |
So want to try out silicone bakeware? I’d suggest starting out with cupcake cases; it’s much easier to get a feel for the product with something small. And cupcake cases are relatively inexpensive, so if you decide silicone isn’t for you, you haven’t lost much. The normal shaped cases from Lakeland (linked below) are a great starter set; you can also find silicone bakeware in the home department of many large supermarkets. If you want fancy shaped cases like my heart ones or the flowerpots a trip to a specialist cookware shop is probably going to be required.
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