I picked up a butterfly shaped silicone piece a while back and just realized I have no idea how to use it. Do I put it directly on the oven rack or on a cookie sheet or something? Thank you very, very much for your help!

I think your suppose to use a cookie sheet under it.

I thought so...
Thanks a bunch!

Yup they go on a cookie sheet for support! Good Luck

Do many of you use the silicone bakeware? I always look at it and pick it up at the store but you know how it is to step outside of your comfort zone sometimes??!!?? LOL

Michelle104 - I wonder this same thing every time a pass the stuff. It looks so intriguing but does it really work well?

My sister got me a silicone bakeware set with several pieces in it a couple of years ago for Christmas. Here was my opinion: I think it's really neat in that it makes washing easier, you can practically turn the thing inside out. It was also easier to pop out muffins or a loaf of bread using those respective pans. Unfortunately, I was not as pleased with 2 of the pieces and ended up throwing them out. The 9x13 pan and the pie pan shaped ones were just too floppy. I realize that the whole point of silicone is to be flexible, but in the case of those, the floppiness just made it unusuable. I baked a cake in the 9x13 a couple of times and it just didnt hold it's shape right, bulging in the middle of the sides, because it was a little too flexible.

Interestingly you can completely twist/fold/roll them and they always fall back into shape.

The downside of the silicone bakeware I had was there was a really unpleasant chemical smell the first several times I used the items!!! I don't know if this would be the case for every silicone baking item, but the stuff I got was far from being cheap so I don't think it was just low quality. However, after several uses of baking and washing, the smell started to go away. I'd recommend before you use it to bake for the first time, wash it really good and then stick it in the oven by itself or something and bake it to bake off some of that smell. Beats me why the smell happens. I almost threw the stuff out because of it at first! Now that it doesn't do that anymore though, I do really like the muffin and the loaf baking pans and use them quite often.

Monica, I just purchased the big and little heart ones, do you have to spray them with anything before baking, thanks

Monica, And on that note, I think I'll pass on silicone bakeware.

I have a muffin pan, and I regret buying it... the muffins browns easily on the bottom and tops. the sides are not browned. it sticks to the pan, do I have to control the temperature of the oven? I think the conventional muffin pan is way better...

I always use Bakers Joy brand baking spray for baking, and the silicone stuff is no exception. (Bakers Joy works a ton better than Pam or any of that sort, and is cheaper than Wilton's spray). I've not seen any problems from it. I guess ultimately, if your talking about ordinary stuff like muffin pans, I'd just stick to traditional pans. While the silicone version is kind of neat, it is still a pain to have to always put a cookie sheet under it when if it were just a regular muffin pan I wouldn't have to fool with that.

However, if it's one of those really unique shapes like the giant rose shaped silicone pan I've seen, I wouldn't hesitate to use it. In that particular circumstance, the flexibility of a silicone mold pan would be most appropriate. Anytime I ever tried using metal pans for complex shaped cakes, it just never releases in one piece and is impossible to pull out without tearing the cake. So the ability to bend the pan and pop the cake out would be good there.

So you think that the molded baking pans would work better than say the 9x13? As far as not being too flimsy to hold the shape? Oh yeah! And what about the oven mitts and hotpads?

Ok I love my Silpat mats to death. I just tried a silicone haert and it did not hold the shape well at all. I let it cool and everything!I can use them for Ice cream cakes though!

You could use them for a fondant mold. Or maybe even a chocolate mold (I would think).

I love the baking sheets and my bundt pan. They are blue and I got them from abc distributing for CHEAP! I bought a more expensive red muffin pan and took it back because it sticks horribly. I don't spray my bundt pan ever and it's always been great. I like it for breads and cookies but I don't think I'd use it for anything else. I have the Wilton cupcake liners and don't like those either.

I used the small hearts (six of them) and it did not go well for me. Out of 12 I was only able to salvage four of them; but I was half expecting that to happen because of the recipe I was using. I don't think they will be good for baking in general though, maybe the larger molds, but not small ones. Too much room for error in them.

I tried silicone bakeare before and returned it. Didn't like the smell of it, didn't bake evenly and putting a cookie sheet under it kind of defeats the purpose of only using 1 pan.
I've just recently used silicone molds for chocolate. Wilton has a mini heart one and I filled with some chocolate, chilled, stuffed with cake ball and topped off with chocolate. Once it was set, getting them out was awesome. Just push from the bottom and the whole mold turns inside out so they came out so easy. Love it for this and will try other shapes for candy/cake ball making.

I have tried the blue silicone muffin pan also. The muffins had an awful chemical smell and taste to them, made me so mad! I haven't baked in them since!

I used the small heart Wilton one for cakeballs. They are in my pics.

Newtodecorating - do you mind sharing how you did it? My cakes just came out in crumbs. Did you use a recipe that was more stable?

Sugarbunz- I haven't tried baking in them yet. I started a thread a little while ago about doing cakeballs in the small heart one.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-75041.html

I did 2 doz more last night

Well DUH! Silly me. OBVIOUSLY I know nothing about cake balls (I was thinking you baked cake in them)! They sure look yummy though, I'll have to try it so I can at least get some use out of those things.

you gotta get on the cakeball bandwagon!! These things are GOOD!