Baking with silicone

It was my first couple of yoghurt cakes, or should I say my first ‘metal tin’ yoghurt cake versus my first silicone pan yoghurt cake which got me thinking about silicone. And when I say silicone, I refer not to the controversial stuff or the resin (used for children’s dinnerware) but to the new trend in bake ware!
Everywhere you look, you’ll find silicone on the store shelves, in a variety of shapes, colours, sizes and for various uses.

        

     

     

Silicone is often mistakenly referred to as “silicon.” Although silicones contain silicon atoms, they are not made up exclusively of silicon, and have completely different physical characteristics from elemental silicon.

I personally have a range of silicone products in my kitchen. I have spatulas, pastry brushes, egg poachers, baking tins, a cookie sheet and more. I like them, cause they’re very easy to clean and flexible. Silicone products are heat-resistant, they can withstand temperatures of up to 360 degrees centigrade though I always have a look at my specific utensil to find out its recommended temperatures.

     

     

Anyway, I wanted to make a cake which called for a Bundt pan. Since I didn’t have one, I borrowed one from my neighbour, made the cake and returned it. However, the cake turned out very nice (a tad too sweet though) and I thought if I was going to do a repeat, it was better if I got my own Bundt tin and so began the search which ended up in me buying a silicone Bundt pan – it was the only one I could find on the day I went a-looking.

      

     

Anyway, I was a bit skeptical about using it, as I’ve always had this things about plastic/rubberised cookware. I’m aware there’s a lot of controversy about what should and should not go into the microwave. And so as soon as I got it, I went a-googling, to find the ‘silicone’ test which I knew must exist. I came across an article which gave me tips on how to check the quality of silicone bake ware. So do this when you go out to buy:

Because some silicone products incorporate fillers, the product may not be 100%. You can check if they’re potentially compromised by pulling or pinching. If the product contains fillers, it will turn white. And of course, you know what to do then. Just in case you don’t know, I’ll say it – don’t buy.

Thankfully, mine was fine especially as I did the test at home, after the fact.

     

Some silicone bake ware is generally inexpensive in my opinion – I recently got a 12-pack of silicone cupcake moulds for under 2 Euros. Almost the same price as you’d get for cupcake paper liners. They are also quite colourful – I have seen them in almost every colour. In the same breath, I also have a set of egg poachers which I got for 10 euros! They’d better last for ever.

I’ve done numerous cake tests with metal and silicone and the key differences are:

Preparing the tins: Silicone moulds shouldn’t need greasing. They’re non-stick – a great, great plus for them.However, I prefer to grease them, spraying with some oil spray to allow easy release of my baked goods. I especially grease them when I’d like some ingredient to adhere to the sides like flaked almonds or desiccated coconut. Metal bake ware on the other hand must be greased in one way or the other. One tick for silicone

Putting in the oven: Funny I should mention it right, after all with metal tins, it’s not an issue that ever comes up. Well with silicone, it is a big and tricky issue- cold (into the oven) and hot (coming out of the oven). Because Silicone is lightweight and rubbery, it is flexible….. Extremely FLEXIBLE. So flexible that I’ve literally wrestled to keep some cake mixes from hitting the floor with a splatter, only a few minutes from baking heaven. (If you can conquer this, victory is yours. And I’ve learned the secret. Read on) But flexibility is not a problem you ever have with Metal so on this front, Metal wins hands down….

But I’ve found a solution to handling silicone pans, thanks to those who’ve been before me. So now if I’m using the silicone pans, I’ll make sure I start by getting out an oven tray or rack, and laying them on it before I fill the cakes. One tick for metal, sniff, sniff for Silicone.

   

   

The shape of the cakes:When I used the Bundt pans, the cake baked in the silicone pan ended up uniformly round, without sloping edges. My cake from the metal Bundt pan had a slight dome shape with sloping sides. In essence, my silicone cake looked like a round cake with a slightly rounded upper rim and a home, not like a real Bundt cake but since I’m no purist, that’s good by me! My cupcakes though look normal, just as they would with if I used paper cupcake liners in a regular tin. 0.5 tick for silicone, since I don’t care how the cakes look, but others may

 

The texture of the cake: Well this test wasn’t a fair one, I must say. I sprinkled some desiccated coconut inside my silicone pan, and the resulting texture of the cake was wow. Chewy exterior with soft interior – perfect cosmic balance. On the other hand, when I inadvertently did the test in my Bundt pan cakes, the textures were markedly different with the silicone cake coming out much better. Can you tell yet that I love it? Yet another tick for silicone

 

Getting the cake out: This is when silicone rocks and comes up trumps. It’s a walkover getting the cakes out of any of the silicone bake ware. However, like with any other cake, baked in any tin, I wait a few minutes for it to cool down before tipping it now. I haven’t ended up with broken cakes from my silicone pan… yet. I haven’t had to dig out trowels, spatulas or anything else to help get the cake out – and I can’t say that about past experiences with metal tins. And even yet another tick for silicone

    

    

Cleaning up: Silicone bake ware cleans up a treat, I’m done in minutes. I find with metal that I may need to soak a tin for a while especially if things have gone awry up till now. Silicone – 1, metal – none.

    

    

Storage and all the rest: Well, silicone tends to discolour a little bit, so does metal, Silicone could get pierced by sharp objects, which could potentially render it useless. I guess metal wouldn’t suffer the same fate. It may be scratched but it would take more than a knife to put it out of commission. Silicone also tends to be a bummer to store. But I also have issues fitting all my pans in my cupboard. So that’s a tie. In this category, silicone ends up with a 0.3 out of a total 1. Metal wins, hands down.

 

Overall silicone wins – for me that is. You must make your choice. Try it. Make a mix, split it in two. Bake one in a silicone pan and the other in a metal pan. See what happens. You be the judge.

For me, it is my favoured bake ware these days and with all the assurances of safety I will continue using it…. With as much caution as I can exercise.

I forgot to mention that in addition to being oven safe, they are dishwasher safe, and freezer safe. And make great moulds for jellies……

    

     

What more could you wish for? Where to find them?

In the Netherlands, you’ll find them in fantastic homeshops like Xenos, Action and other larger shops

In the UK, I’ll bet you can find them at Asda, Tesco and the like

and in the US, If Target doesn’t stock them or Walmart…. I’d be very suprised!

 

Color trend up to 2014

New trend colors up to 2014 have already been determined.A two year forecast is not a luxury. Companies need to know what colors they have to take into account when developing new products.

Hilde Francq: the Belgian member of the Color Marketing Group. Her business card? Color forecaster.

          

For the summer of 2013, the colors are taken straight from nature (left). For example, the picture of the lighthouse means that before the end of 2013, weathered blue tones combined with flag red will be in fashion.

Grass green and building block yellow will be the 2013 summer colors and flag red and sand brown will dominate the winter transition to 2014.How do we know that? Because those colors have already been determined. All the fashion tones worldwide are picked two years in advance by an organization of 40 ‘color predictors’. One of them is the Flemish Hilde Francq (46). “Don’t expect any far-fetched colors in the coming years. Because of the economic crisis and the uncertainty concerning the Euro, people need pure, natural colors in the coming years. And that’s exactly what they’ll get.”

Summer 2013: grass green, building block yellow and aqua blue.
Transition to 2014: blue tones, flag red and sand brown.
The new colors don’t just apply to clothing but to almost everything: from glasses to kitchen appliances.It’s more difficult when it comes to cars.Because of the crisis, in the coming years, people need pure, natural colors that appear to be more long-lasting.

STEFAN VANDERSTRAETEN
Over the last three days a meeting was held in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, that will change the look of the world. And for once that can be taken literally. From all corners of the world, forty men and women flew in with one subject in mind: colors. As the Color Marketing Group, its mission is as remarkable as it is unknown (to the outside world): to decide now what the dominant trend colors will be for the coming years. And not only for clothing and related accessories, but for almost everything the consumer can buy: from glasses to kitchen appliances, bicycles and even cars. “Because everything is dependent on color,” says Hilde Francq. “Color is the first thing people notice in a shop window and often seems to be the most important incentive to purchase. Research shows that at least 85% of all products are ultimately picked by the consumer on the basis of color. In other words: anyone who sees an item of clothing or appliance in a color he doesn’t like will never buy that product, no matter how
solid it may be. So we help international industry by choosing the right colors.”

No gimmicks
As spokeswoman for ‘Box 3’- that gives color advice to Gazelle (bicycles), Fatboy (bean bags), Obumex (interior furbishing) and Arte (wall decorations and interior textiles) among others – Hilde Francq is the only Belgian member of the Color Marketing Group, known as ‘color forecaster’ on her business card. “A forecaster determines the color trends two years in advance. In Lisbon we discussed the colors for the summer of 2014. At the end of the three day meeting we had reached a ‘European’ color palette of 12 colors. At the new meeting in Miami in October that will be merged with color palettes from Asia, North and Latin America and from that the new ‘global color palette’ for the summer of 2014 will be determined”. In October, it is already known which colors will dominate the world two years later. What good is that? “This is not a gimmick. It’s a real necessity.”, says Francq. “Don’t forget that the development of most products takes a considerable amount of time, even if that is because the manufacturers first have to put all their suppliers to work. For certain textiles, at least nine months of preparation is necessary.
And for the production of glasses frames – a sector that is raining colors these days – it takes at least a year. In addition, the prototypes may be rejected several times before the desired result is achieved. So a two year forecast is not an unnecessary luxury.”

Unconscious preference
The fact that the colors for the summer of 2014 are now already being discussed in Lisbon also means that, meanwhile, the colors for 2013 and the winter transition to 2014 are known already. At least, to the insiders. Because industries have to pay for a preview of the color palette. Hilde Francq gave us a special sneak preview. “Because of the economic crisis and the uncertainty concerning the Euro, the colors for the coming years are becoming more natural. We consumers have less money to spend and so we will – sometimes unconsciously – give preference to products where the color appears to be more
durable. So, colors that are not too far-fetched, but purer and more natural: including grass green and real yellow that reminds us of the building blocks of our childhood. As a pleasant note, the playful,water blue aqua tone will pop up.” That last shade will also show up in the fall of 2013 and the transition to 2014. “Blue tones that we find in the sky and sea are widely present. The common denominator is that they all appear slightly dull – almost weathered by the wind. The bright flag red will be broadly
present, in combination with the supporting sand and claylike brown colors.”

Never search
It all seems slightly airy fairy, but the industries will follow this color trend unconditionally. “The fashion industry is always the trend setter,” according to Francq. “Through their clothing and accessories they will be the first to launch these colors. Only after the consumer has become accustomed to these colors – through what they see others wearing on the street – will the other manufacturers of interior textiles, kitchen appliances or even bicycles, for example, start to use these colors. Although there are some sectors where the colors will be extremely slow in making an entrance, the car industry being the leader. There, for as long as we can remember, black has been the most popular color for bodywork.The fact that white is now requested a lot, has taken years.

The car industry is also one of the few sectors where colors can be eliminated in advance. No matter how trendy green is for other products, this color will never take off for cars. Green is an excellent symbol for nature, and there is simply no room for a car there.” But on what grounds do the color forecasters themselves search for the colors? “We never search for colors; they seem to come to us automatically.We put six months work into every new palette. We find influences all over: in leading cities, at all types of trade fairs and exhibitions, in museums … in fact, everywhere. Recently, I saw three cars behind each
other at the traffic lights, coincidentally in three different colors that matched each other perfectly. I immediately took a photo. Even neon lighting or graffiti can be a direct source of inspiration. At the end of each period of six months we put all the sources of inspiration next to each other and stick adjectives on them – pure, real, flashy, fluo, whatever – where immediately the corresponding color is born.
Try to see it as pieces of a puzzle that come together perfectly every six months,” says Francq, who has a surprising answer to the question what is her personal favorite color? “I don’t have one. For a color forecaster a favorite color would be a handicap. Unconsciously we would always go back to it. And that’s not allowed. We have to be open to all colors.”

Black and white are eternally trendy

“It is rare, but some colors are eternally trendy,” according to color forecaster Hilde Francq. “For the interior, it is always a safe bet to pick white in all its facets, soft brown tones and taupe colors(grey-brown, ed.). You can cheer these up any season with a couple of the trend colors, for example,with a cushion or vase in the new color.”“When it comes to fashion, that is more difficult. There, the trend colors change every season.Naturally, black and denim are always in, but only in combination with the proper trend color.”(StV).