Hi everyone,

I am making my wedding cake in December (another thread for another time, LOL). The only reason I'm doing it is because it's going to be VERY simple. I had a question about cake pans. I have the Wilton 6 and 8 inch rounds (2 of each). I am also going to bake a 12 and 10 inch but I don't have those pans yet.

What are your opinions of the Wilton rounds? I don't even think I can get the 12" Wilton round at Michael's anymore because they are stocking the Celebrate It brand (which feels and looks identical to Wilton). I can use Michael's coupons and get the two pans I need really cheap or I can splurge for higher-quality Magic Line, which I may or may not use again in the future.

I guess my question is, do you think the Wilton Performance rounds would work well for a wedding cake?

Thanks in advance!

Annie

I have Wilton, Fat Daddios, and Magic Line - and use whatever I need. If you only bake for a hobby, Wilton would work fine. If you plan to continue to bake larger cakes, then you might want to invest in either of the other two.

I will BUMP it too....because IDK either but I hope you get an answer.

I got some Fat Daddio's and Magic Line pans from Fondant Source online and they were cheaper than the Wilton ones. I had a Wilton 8" and a Fat Daddio's 8". When the cakes came out of the pans the one that had been baked in the Wilton one was more done on the outside and it was tougher on the outside and the Fat Daddio's pan had better texture on the outside. Needless to say I got rid of the Wilton pan and got another Fat Daddio's. Just my 2 cents.

I don't like Wilton products, personally.

Whatever kind of pan you get, make sure it has straight sides, which means the pans of the same size cannot be nested together. Nesting pans result in cakes that actually have graduated diameters, which results in a cake that you have to trim the sides to be even.

I prefer Magic Line pans and Fat Daddios pans.

All my pans are Wilton. They should be fine as long as you're not doing a 9". The 9" nests so the sides aren't straight which causes me to flip out because I think it's something I'm doing wrong.
I can get my hands on Fat Daddio but I think I'm going to order Magic Line online- as soon as I get beyond paying for shipping.

I forgot to mention I was talking about rounds, not squares. I understand the corners of the Wilton squares aren't straight. I don't use squares very often unless I'm carving so the corners haven't been an issue for me- yet.

wilton pans have been just fine for me for years....

I use all different brands for the rounds....and they all work fine (wilton, magic line and fat daddios)

If you want nice square corners for square cakes, I only use magic line for those.

I baked my grandkids birthday cake last weekend. I grabbed out two of my 8" rounds and discovered after the fact that one was wilton and one was magic line.

The wilton cake didn't rise as high and I had a small issue getting it out of the pan. I had trouble getting the icing to stay on the cake, but only on the one that was baked in the wilton pan.

Agree with an above poster...... if it's a one time shot, the wilton will do. Otherwise invest in good pans.

(Pssst! This birthday cake is the WORST cake I've ever done! HAven't got pics up yet, but the ONLY reason I'm going to post them is to show "here's what it looks like when things go wrong"!!)

Thanks for your replies. I looked at the Fondant Source website and the prices are reasonable for the Magic Line pans. I am not a hard core cake decorator but I go through phases where I get in the mood to do it, and then get frustrated with my lack of skills and then give up for a year or two (LOL). But I have had a couple people ask me to do cakes for them this year so I'm excited about that.

So if I go with the Magic Line pans, should I buy two each of the 6 and 8 inch and then one each of the other sizes I need? I know I can bake the 6 and 8 inch cakes together on the same rack but not sure about baking two 10 inch and larger cakes at the same time. What do you all think?

You can put a 10 " and the 6" or 8" on each of the racks. I would definitely buy two of each pan. It is a pain waiting around for 2 separate big cakes to cook. I use the flower nail trick in my 10" pans instead of the heating core and it works great!

Just an FYI-- Wilton pans aren't really 2" tall, they're a little shorter. So if you're looking for 2" pans you might want to go with a better quality pan.

I prefer magicline and fat daddios pans. I find they bake more evenly. Wilton is a thinner pan. I started with them, but once I found out there were better pans available, I stocked up. I prefer using the 3" pans for the extra height, and always use a flower nail for a heating core on anything over 8".

I have two pans my mother used to bake my wedding cake 36 yrs ago. There are no markings on it, but I can assure you it's not a Wilton. I will be using those two pans in Nov for a friends wedding.

For a cake as important as a wedding cake, I'd take no chances. Get the Magic Line pans and you will love them!

I think I will go ahead and get those pans. There is a set on Amazon which looks fairly reasonable. I may go ahead and purchase an additional 6 and 8 inch pan so I can bake them together. I guess for the larger cakes I will just go with one pan and do the first layer one day, and the second layer the next day and then freeze for a couple of days.

Looking back, I was always confused why my cakes came out with a hard crust on the outside (using the Wilton pans). They didn't get over-browned or anything, but the crust was hard and I even bake at 325. Hopefully switching to Magic Line will solve that problem.

I haven't done anything larger than 8 inches, so I didn't use a flower nail. I had baking strips a long time ago but I think they got tossed. I thought about buying more to see if that would fix the hard crust problem. I always bake at 325.