For Those Uncertain Of Bake Even Strips. Take A Looksie!!
Decorating By Sarsi Updated 8 May 2008 , 12:25am by tonimarie
Okay, so I thought, well, other people don't use bake even strips....I was in a hurry. I tried it and look what happened!! I was using Fat Daddio's Pans....both cakes were from the same batter.... the ONLY difference was that I didn't use a bake even strip on one.....I'm sure the only reason it was THIS bad is because of the type of cake I made, but still....just wanted to show this!! 
whoa... i'm making homemade bake strips NOW LOL
I don't have problems with my magic line pans, but any wilton pans I have DEFINATELY dome without bake even strips. Funny how the two go hand in hand. They probably make crappy pans just to sell the strips. Brilliant marketing!
I agree with Alana, I don't need them with my Magic Line pans.
I bought some Fat Daddio pans and can't stand them.
Wow, big difference! LOL I'm just a hobby baker, so I use cheaper Wilton pans 
They dome just slightly, but I just press them down with a dishtowel as soon as they come out of the oven. I might need to give the strips a try some day, though! I'm impressed!
butterflywings, just what are you using to make your strips??
I would also like to try this out and see if it works.....
I used old towels to make my homemade strips. I cut the towel in 4 inch strips long enough to go around my 8" pans. Before I put them on the pan I fold each strip over so it's 2 inches wide. I get them wet, squeeze out excess water and pin them on the pan.
I use wilton pans and have never had an issue with excessive doming. I also cook at a slightly lower temp, though, so my cakes rarely have domes anyhow. 
(I used to worry about that, since Mom's cakes always had these huge domes! LOL)
Course, my husband and dog don't like it when the cakes come out flat. No cake tops to eat. 
I'm using old terry cloth dish towels. someone else had done a thread about this last week (i think). you just cut strips and fold the strip in 1/2 (depends on the thickness of your terry cloth - mine are old and worn so th-iiiin) and then i'm just going to use those metal binder clips to hold them. you do have to wet them and then wring them out so that are just damp (not dripping wet) - this beats paying wilton's outrageous price for a set
Yeah, I like Magic line pans the best as well, but when I needed some 4" pans, I was in a hurry and all my cake supplier carried was Fat Daddio's 
I still have problems with Wiltons pans not baking even EVEN when I use the strips!!! ARGH!! I need to switch..
Thanks butterflywings & mom2allboys for explaining.
I have old towels that I could cut up and use to make these.
So, I will give it a try with my next baking order.
bath towels are generally thicker than dish towels, so you might find that you don't need to double the width.. just make it the width of your pan's height
I bought some strips online, they werent the Wilton ones, they had a velcro strip instead of the pins. I like them, and they were a lot cheaper than Wilton's about $5.00 I think. But what I hate is that they dont fit around my bigger pans! I do make my own, but I use mine a little differently. I cut up a stained bath towel, I also make the 4 inches and double it. I wet mine, wring out the water and then stick mine in the freezer while I mix up my cake. It just firms it up just enough to make it easier to wrap with. I use a large paper clip to secure them. They work great!
I am definitely going to have to try going "stripless" on my Magic Line pans.
I replaced all my Wilton pans with Magic Line pans and was used to having to use the baking strips all the time, so just kept doing it. But I noticed that strips didn't work well with the 6" ML pan where I needed them with the 6" Wilton pan.
Darn.....guess I'll need to do a test cake, I'm sure hubby will be upset!
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