Has anybody had any experience with either or both of the wilton ball tins, and the silverwood ball tins? For those unfamiliar, this is the silverwood one:
http://flbone-kitchener.co.nz/catalogue/show/spherical-pudding-mould-5.html

I know it says it's for puddings, but the instructions also say cakes.

From what I understand, with the Wilton you cook the cake in two halves, then glue them together. How do you manage to get a perfect sphere? With the silverwood, I think you somehow fill it halfway up, and it's supposed to somehow rise and make a perfect sphere...?

I am just wondering if anyone has had any experience with either, or preferably both that can advise of pro's and con's.

I use the Wilton ball pan all the time, And always get perfect spheres There are excellent for doing corset cakes

I'm going to go with my hunch , and say you use the silver wood, the same way as the Wilton . . You fill BOTH half's, cook them seperatly and join them together. I remember my gran using one of those to make ice-cream bombs before and its a very very fiddly thing to do to join the two half's together when there full of liquid lol.

I know alot of people dont care for the Wilton tins, But i personally have had great success with them

Silverwood will be of far superior quality, hence the big price difference. I have read on their website that you can make beds of scrunched up foil to sit each half in and then bake them like the Wilton tins. I have the Wilton tins, and while at first they were great, now, after several uses, every cake I bake in them sticks to the pan, no matter how I prepare the tin. I'm seriously considering investing in the Silverwood tins (the 4 & 6in) now as it's really getting on my nerves!

@Cath - I read on their website that you cook them together, though I just can't fathom how you'd get the perfect sphere.
@Mike - that's good to know, thank you! I'd still like to know how you get a perfect sphere with the Wilton..? Is the cake taller than it needs to be, and you chop it off at a certain line?

I have the silverwood as well, in 2 different sizes. I bake from scratch and I never pour my batter, it's too thick for that. I fill the bottom half of the sphere really full and heap a bit in the middle and join the two halves, fix them and bake. Turn out beautifully each time

I want the Silverwood so badly. I know how superior they are.

If anyone knows where I could get this sphere in the US, could you let me know?

We had some bespoke trays made by Silverwood. Their pans, customer service, everything is fantastic! I highly recommend them.

Ursula, so it truly does fill the whole pan and makes it spherical? I just can't understand how it's possible! It never goes ALMOST all the way to the top, but not quite? What if it want's to expand MORE than the ball, would it just compress itself because it's got nowhere else to go? Intriguing!

taniabanana, what are bespoke trays? Did you buy them online, or locally? Silverwood seems quite hard to locate in the shops.

Yes, every cake rises, some more than others, the spherical upper shape just makes sure that it rises in a definate form. Most of my cakes are a pound cake, they work best. And even though they might mot completely fill, you usually cut a small slice at the bottom to make the cake not roll, just turn it upside down and use the bottom as the top. But as I said, up till now, mine have turned out everytime. The cake is a bit denser but that's good, because it will then not crumble when you handle it

Ursula, I'm still waiting for the shop to get the silverwood tins in (they say next month), and I just saw in a decorating book the silverwood tins with a little spiel which says:
"Bake sponge cake balls in two halves. Allow the halves to cool in the tin then level each cake using the edge of the tin and stick the two halves together with buttercream to make a perfect sphere."

So I had to come back to this thread to confirm that you really did say it would bake as a sphere!

What sort of cakes have you tried other than the pound cake? Do you think dense is the only way to go? They mention sponge cake in the snippet I just pasted, so I'm wondering if it's just personal preference.

Oh, one more question, do you bother to line your silverwood or just grease it? In the book they go through a complicted procedure to line it, but I've been told by a cake shop who rent out the wilton that they tell people to just spray with canola oil. I told her what Mike said in the previous post, she just shrugged at me.

If anybody is interested, I know that globalsugarart just got the Silverwood sphere pans in stock.

Thank you, zespri, for your efforts in getting this done! I think they only have about 6 of them, minus the 2 that I just ordered. Can't wait!