Which one is betteer...the "as seen on tv" or the wilton one? I have to make a topsy turvy cake for someone and the top is a giant cupcake. Which one works the best? The wilton one is 31.99 at my local place and the other one is at walgreens next to me for 21.99......
And are there any tricks or pointers when using one?

We have the Wilton one, and like it. Do you have an AC Moore or Michaels near you? You could use one of their coupons and get it for 40 or 50% off. That would make it even cheaper than the other one. Sorry I can't offer any info of the other one.

Yes we have a michaels minutes down the street. I didnt know they sold it. Im going to go there and see if I can get it for less. Im trying to find it for less than 20 dollars in town since I cant wait for it to be shipped. I think im going to go with the wilton. It looks more sturdy also.

Make sure you check either your Sunday paper for their flyer to get a coupon, or check online. Does your Michaels take AC Moore coupons? If they do you can check them online also.

Someone gave my mom the silicone one for Christmas. My mom's the one who first taught me to do cakes, so she knows what she's doing, although she did have my nephews (12 and 10) helping her. She said the cakes baked fine and stacked up ok to look like a cupcake, but that once you sliced into it and got a few pieces out, it started to fall apart.

If I were to do a giant cupcake, I'd carve the bottom (inside the cup) part out of cake, frost and cover in fondant to look like the cup. Then I'd use RKT to form the base of the icing mound (skewer in place with bamboo bbq skewers) and then ice the RKT with frosting to look like cupcake frosting. Don't forget the sprinkles!

Thats the third complain about the silicone pan that Ive heard. It must be a flaw in the pan. Everyone said theirs deflated. And I do not need that to happen. I just printed off the 50% coupon from the michaels website for starting an account. Ill check the sunday paper too. I actually believe Im going to stuff the pan with rkt since we'll already have 2 cakes for everyone to eat. I figured the people that do not want cake will have rkt and hey...who doesnt love that? This cake will be a blast. Im truly excited to make it. Its a 2nd birthday cake for triplets!!

You DEFINITELY want the Wilton one to use with RKT. You can push them good into the hard pan. That certainly wouldn't work with silicone pan. For what it's worth, we did a straight forward cupcake when we did ours, nothing fancy on it, but here's a photo of it if you're interested: http://s314.photobucket.com/albums/ll426/ShelbyLynnCakes/?action=view¤t=7.jpg

I'm imagining that a RKT will be a big hit. (I happen to hate RKT, but that's just me - and I think only me...... lol). I'll bet that it will really impress them. I'll be looking forward to seeing you post a photo when it's done. Please.

I have the wilton one. They can't even make the silicone one look good for the commercial, how are you supposed to make it look good at home?

Mine came from a Linens and Things that was going out of business. I got it for like $10. Use it all the time. My only complaint is that the top cooks faster than the bottom.

If you use the Wilton pan, you may want to bake the top and bottom seperately. The top being that much smaller, bakes quicker.

I got the silicone one for Christmas but I haven't tried it yet. I'm a little leery b/c silicone and I do not get along. I was planning on trying it for DD's birthday so maybe I should do a practice run. Thanks for the tip...

I got the silicone one as a Christmas gift too, but I haven't tried it out yet. I don't get a good feeling about it, but hey, at least I didn't spending money on it, ha.