I wonder what life would have been life if baking cups and liners were never invented. Imagine all the time you’d have to invest in soaking, scouring and cleaning the pans not to mention having to grease and flour each individual cup before you bake them. I have no idea who invented baking cups, but hats off to them, they’ve made my life a lot easier! I am a sucker for Wilton products [if you could tell that already] so when I come across baking cups I tend to go a little bonkers and buy way too many of them. You never know when they are going to discontinue a design or revamp it. When I first saw the Gingerbread Boy design I thought it looked a little too country for me, sure I do crafts and stuff but I’m not really into the whole ‘country’ theme. But I figured that I can always use them for the holidays, when I bake I bake in bulk so having 50 of one design is never a problem for me.

Wilton Gingerbread Boy Baking Cups 415-350 [standard size]

Decorated with plump gingerbread boys, candy canes, trees and tiny yellow stars, these cups are a great thing to have around if you plan on making treats for the holidays. Even casual bakers can make use of these for cupcakes, petit fours, nut clusters and more. The design in clean and simple but it really adds a lot to the presentation, you can serve your baked goods inside a nice looking baking cup and if you aren’t one to go to elaborate lengths to decorate, these help to add a little festive flair to your items. They are fairly easy to separate but there were a few times that a couple of them stuck together. What I like best about them is that no matter what I bake in them they hold up to the ingredients. Sometimes I make cake mixes from scratch and other baking liners and cups get saturated with the oil that I use, not these! Since the cups have a lot of white to them even if there is a little saturation, chances are you won’t see it.

I’ve never had any trouble using these outside of a few of them sticking together but that may have been my fault; some sugar may have gotten on the sides of them. These will fit into almost all standard sized cupcake baking pans without them wobbling around, this is one thing that really irks me about cupcake liners, when they move around when you are pouring in the batter or mix. Another thing to know about these is that you can use them at higher heats [I’ve only used them as high as 400 degrees] so if you want to make muffins or brownies you can do so safely in these. These are “all paper” [no foil or glossy sheen] but even so, the design is cute and perfect for all your holiday baking needs.

Price

You can find these at places like Target, Wal-Mart [usually the Super Wal-Mart stores] and Michaels for about a dollar fifty. This design is a seasonal one so it’s pretty hard to find before October but you can usually catch it at the Wilton online store although sometimes it will say that it is out of stock, check back every few weeks to see if they have added them back into the production line. Are they worth it? To me they are because the design is cute and simple, it has a little bit of a country feel to it and if you don’t feel like going “all out” to decorate it you can add some frosting and Christmas sprinkles and be done.

Alternate Uses

If you are someone that does crafts you can use these for a decoupage design on trinket boxes or for scrapbooking. For treats these are awesome! Take a small handful of nuts, toss them in the cup then drizzle chocolate over them, you’ll have homemade nut clusters that are simple to make but a pleasure to eat. You can do this with raisins, dried fruits, any type of nut or crushed up pretzels. Since the baking cups are strong you won’t have to worry about them falling apart or sticking to most treats. Another great thing to do with these is to make oversized muffins, you know, those colossal ones you see for two bucks at places like Starbucks. A little extra care is needed before you fill the cups; you might want to spray the tops of the baking pans with some release spray or lightly grease and flour them so the tops of the muffins don’t stick when it ‘overflows’ on to the baking pan. To get the tops nice and crisp add brown sugar or a mix of brown sugar and nuts.

Things To Know

• The Gingerbread Boy design from Wilton is available in two sizes, the standard [415-350] that comes 50 to a package and the mini ones [415-2009] that come 75 to a package. If you are going to order these online please do yourself a favor and double check the numbers so that you end up with the correct size. If you are ordering from the Wilton Online Store the selections are clearly marked but if you are ordering from another site, they may not have them listed correctly. The designs are identical but the mini ones are about half the size, perfect for making mini muffins or chocolate covered peanuts but if you ordered the standard sized ones and got these, you might be a little ticked off.

The Bottom Line

Wilton products are generally a cut above the rest; their designs are cute, the products last a long time and you do get what you pay for. These baking cups are great to have on hand when you want to whip up some cupcakes but don’t have a lot of time to put into decorating them. They are strong and sturdy, will hold up to almost anything that you put in them and peel off most cakes and treats easily. If you are in the market for some Christmas themed baking cups, check out the Gingerbread Boy design!


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2005 Freak369


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Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): see review