Imagenthatnj, I love those cores. Thanks for posting the link. You are right about those dents in the cake. And if you throw the nails in the sink in a bowl and forget about them like I do, they get sort of rusty. I guess that is because they weren't meant to be baked.

Have you tried the Goldtouch cupcake pans? The difference is huge. The only time I don't use Goldtouch is with cookie sheets, but they are still WS. I always use parchment. Last year they redesigned the cookie sheets to have a bottom that allows air to circulate. This was a big improvement.

scp1127, I only have Goldtouch. For everything. I love my cupcake pans. I don't make cookies, so I haven't had that trouble. I am so used to those pans that for other shapes I'm going to buy this extender, use it with the Goldtouch sheet pans and just cut with pastry rings.

http://www.pastrychef.com/SHEETPAN-EXTENDERS_p_1270.html

The only other pans I have are the square multi-size Alan Silverwood and a ball pan from the same company.

Ok imagenthatnj, you are definitely as OCD as I am. So what do you think the material of the extender will do to the cake it touches? The Goldtouch will not be touching it?

My only problem with the Goldtouch is that with each redesign, the weight changes slightly. I like to weigh my pans with batter to make them even. I have to adjust the heavier pans' weight while I'm measuring.

LOL. Yes, I'm OCD. Except I don't have much time to bake and try everything I want to try. My job is crazy.

The extenders are made of fiberglass. I don't know much about the material when used for baking, but I will only use those if I need a bigger cake than 9". That doesn't happen frequently. I guess when I try them, I'll know. I plan on cutting the cakes with cake rings anyway.

I divide the batter too. But I just weighed the mixer bowl and I keep that weight written down somewhere. Then when the batter is mixed, I weigh it so that I know the weight of the batter. I divided that batter by 3. Then I take my first pan, put it on the scale, zero it (tar) and pour in one third of the batter in grams.

Isn't it crazy? The old pans were a lot heavier. That's my 8" ones, I saw the difference and was a little worried, but the new kind seem to be working fine.

I put the three pans in a row, eyeball them with filling, weigh them, and then worry that I got the heavy one out of order. I think it's only about three oz's.

And I too have this rediculous list of "to do" cakes.

I use a doctored mix in my retail store and people love my cakes and cupcakes. I have tried scratch baking and the cakes are dry. I have also visited other shops in different states across the country and I can tell scratch from doc mix, and every scratch cake is dry, dry , dry. Kudos to those that have found scratch recipes that are not dry. I love my doc. mixes and it's not cheating its giving customers good tasting cakes, thats what it is about.

Congratulations Linda on your successful opening!