Wilton Decorative Preferred Heating Core Bakeware

Comment: I have used this heating core many times and it does the job. But recently, I was baking multiple large cake layers and used my Wilton flower nail for some of them.

The flower nail worked much better! I put it under the parchment paper, with the point sticking up through the paper. (I always use parchment, greased on both sides, esp for chocolate cakes which are notorious for sticking.)

The flower nail didn't deform the cake -- no hole to plug -- and cooked the center just as well. It was easy to remove by flipping the layer onto a wire rack. I also always use insulating strips around the outside of my pans (from Wilton and others) to slow down the outer edges while the middle catches up, resulting in more even tops and more moist outer edges.

Comment: I purchased two of these because I do a lot of baking and I prefer Wilton products. I read the description carefully and it seemed pretty standard. When I received my baking cores I realized that they were very large. As I read on the package I saw that these were recommended for baking pans 12" or larger. I rarely will use a pan that large so this product is not very useful for me. Haven't yet used these so cannot comment on their quality. However, they do seem pretty solid. It seemed more trouble than it's worth to return such small and inexpensive items so they are just taking up room in my kitchen.

Comment: I highly recommend using a heating core!
It helps in distributing the heat in your cake batter, to make level cakes.

Comment: This item is necessary for large baking pans over 10". I was skeptical at first to use it, but I did because it was recommended. The cake came out perfect and the cake inside the heat core fit perfectly in the hole of the cake. I baked a 12" x 18" cake in 45 minutes! The heat core is also very easy to clean.

Comment: Helps cakes cook properly, especially large cakes. WOuld recommend for the Wilton 12 x 18 pan.