I found some cute snowflake-shaped silicone muffin molds on sale this week and I thought it would be fun to try.
I’m encountering some problems.
When filled with muffin batter, the tray is difficult to hold - it folds down in the middle from the weight. Because of this, it’s hard to put in and take out of the oven, so I ended up putting it on a baking sheet instead. Of course, that threw off my cooking time. Am I supposed to need a baking sheet? Or did I just get cheap flimsy silicone?
Also, the “snowflake” isn’t just the shape, it’s also a pattern along the bottom of the cups, so when you flip over the muffin, it looks like a snowflake. But a muffin puffs up when it bakes, and the tops aren’t flat - so the snowflakes stay on the bottom, where nobody can see them! Am I supposed to fill “decorative” molds much less than the regular kind?
Was this all a dumb idea? Is there a way to do things so the silicone molds make more sense? Do I have to adapt recipes if I’m using them?
i haven’t tried out the silicone muffin pan yet that i bought a few months ago from a discount store – but i did notice that some of the large-area ones (multiple-mini-loafpans, square cake pans) were being sold with a separate, (more) rigid frame ring (well, not round, but can’t think of a better term) that helped keep the pan in its proper form. maybe your pan should have had one of those too.
and, just as a guess, i would imagine that if you want the decoration that appears in the bottom of the cup to be visible, it’s pretty much a given that the cup needs to be under-filled so it doesn’t rise over the edge. shame they don’t bother giving more specific use directions with new products like this.
You’ve probably just found out why they were on sale. The larger silicone trays need a rigid metal frame to keep this from happening, and it sounds like you didn’t get one with this tray. If you want to keep using the tray, yes, you’ll have to use a baking sheet to stabilize the tray.
Yes, if you want people to see the design. Otherwise you’ll have to cut your muffin tops off.
It’s pretty easy to level the mold after baking. You can use a piece of dental floss stretched between the handles of two wooden spoons to get a nice flat plane. It works for layer cakes too.