Giant Cupcake Tips

I like Wilton's giant cupcake pan, but not everybody feels that way. The main complaint is that the pan does not come with any instructions. I live at 7000 feet at Lake Tahoe and have not had any altitude baking issues with this pan; however, I have only used cake mixes.

After reading hundreds of reviews and baking blogs, here are some tips that can help with the giant cupcake pan issues:

• Not every scratch recipe will give you good results. Cake mixes seem to work best.
• You need to experiment with how full each side of the pan needs to be. Using the pan for a special event without a trial run may lead to disaster.
• Spray each side with cooking spray even though the pan is non-stick. I can personally vouch for this. I didn't spray and had to dig the cake out of the pan.
• Decrease the oven temperature and bake longer.
• The "top" of the cupcake bakes faster than the "bottom" side.
• Use less batter on the bottom side of the pan.
• Bake the bottom side for 10 minutes and then add the top batter.
• You can expect to have to level the top of the bottom and the flat part of the top.
• Bake each side separately and fill the emtpy side with water.
• Use a baking core on the bottom half.
• Use more icing between the layers than you normally do.
  

Suggestion for Wilton: please split the pan into two pieces so we can bake the tops and bottoms separately