Friday Review: Silicone Cake Cases

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.

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!

Just to illustrate how much the cake rises when filled to the base of the rim.

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.

Cupcake Cases: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15069/I-Can-Cook-12-Silicone-Cupcake-Cases
Flower Pots: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16187/Lakeland-6-Flowerpot-Muffin-Cases

Friday Review: Professional Piping Set

A piping bag and a set of nozzles are essential items to have when decorating cupcakes, especially if you want to achieve those lovely piped swirls of frosting that professional cakes have. This is the set I have, yet again it is a Lakeland product. I promise I do buy things from other shops, it just happens that my favourite things come from Lakeland!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/2233/Professional-Piping-Set

So what do I like about it?
Well for starters you get a nice selection of nozzle shapes, there are 4 star shapes, a shell and 2 round ones (a large and a small one). The nozzles are also really good, they are stainless steel and extremely well made. These are going to last for a long time; the nozzles also don’t require the use of a coupler which is good for me as I don’t like using couplers that much.  These nozzles produce excellent results; even with a beginner like me using them the icing is always well defined.



These were iced with premade frosting.
As you can see the nozzles produce well defined lines,
 but like with buttercream I ended up with a greasy bag.



And what don’t I like?
The bag. The reusable, nylon piping bag really is awful and lets down the entire set really. The nozzles fit it really well but the bag is simply useless. If you use it to try and pipe butter cream which I often do, the bag gets extremely greasy making it quite tricky to use as it gets slippery quickly. And your hands also get covered in grease which can be rather annoying if you want to keep your sprinkles clean! The bag also struggled with whipped cream; in fact the only icing I have found that the bag agrees with is cream cheese frosting. I would seriously suggest that if you buy this set to invest in some disposable silicone piping bags instead of using this one!

And with cream cheese frosting.
Again well defined lines but no greasy bag!

Coincidentally, Lakeland happens to sell some silicone bags. I haven’t used them myself but they are very well reviewed on Lakeland: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/10666/Get-a-Grip-Piping-Bags

So how do I rate it?
Well, the nozzles get 5/5 stars, they are well made and produce good professional looking results. The piping bag on the other hand gets 1/5, it is very unpleasant to use and honestly is not worth the effort.

Friday Review: Lakeland Cupcake Maker

When cupcakes became trendy the market soon became filled with lots of cute and fun things to use to make and decorate them. Everything from fancy cake cases and sprinkles to nifty gadgets to use in the kitchen became available. Chief among these gadgets are the Cupcake Makers!

These gadgets work in a similar way to a toasted sandwich maker, only they have holes in the base rather than a sandwich plate. There are many versions of these appliances available from a whole host of suppliers, and this review is for the one available from Lakeland.

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15861/Lakeland-Electric-Cupcake-Maker-Purple

So what do I like about it?
What I love most about the cupcake maker is the fact is it quick, when I use it I can have a batch of 6 cakes ready in about 20 minutes. No oven required, so it’s better for the environment. I know this because we have one of those fancy Smart Meters that tell you how much electricity you are using, and this really doesn’t use very much at all. I find the fact that it makes 6 cakes at a time is ideal if like me you want to experiment with new flavours, it’s much easier to experiment with small batches and the cakes are always light and springy. I also like how small it is, it doesn’t take up much storage space which is very handy if you have a small kitchen.

And it’s extremely easy to use; you just turn it on and leave it. The power light turns green when it’s warm enough, and mine makes a click noise when the light comes on so even if I’m not looking at it I know when it’s the correct temperature. Cleaning it also easy because of the non-stick coating, if I spill any cake mix on to it I can just wipe it off with no problems.



The power indicator is good and clear to see



So what don’t I like about it?
Well it is a bit tricky to get the cakes out of it; I used to use a fork. (I just stabbed the top of the cake and lifted. Result? Holes in the top of your cake!) However I’ve now solved this problem, I use a pair of bamboo tongs. They are gentle enough to get the cake out without damaging the surface of the cake and also there is no risk of them damaging the non-stick coating. I like the “Toast Tongs” also available from Lakeland: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14236/Magnetic-Toast-Tongs

See very pale but they are cooked

The other downside is the fact that your cakes come out very anaemic looking. They are cooked but are such a pale colour they don’t always look it! However this problem is solved by simply icing the cake or adding some food colour to the mixture. Because it doesn’t colour the cakes much, it is ideal for making coloured cakes.



However some food dye solves the problem!



And my major issue with it? It’s called a “cupcake” maker, but the cakes it actually makes are NOT cupcakes, they are too small. The cakes are actually more like fairy cakes. But I think that is more down to the fact that many people don’t know the difference between cake sizes so I won’t hold that against it.

So how do I rate it? Overall I give it 5/5 stars.
Yes there are some negative aspects to it but they are easily overcome and in my mind the positives out way the negatives. I’d love to hear your opinions on cupcake makers if you have one!