Customer Reviews

Wilton Mini Ball Pan

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've used this pan to make cakes decorated like Christmas ornaments, igloos, small sports balls, and the center of a large sunflower cake. It's hard to carve a shapely circle from round/square cakes, so this has been an indispensable tool in the aforementioned projects.

This is made of flimsy aluminum and requires generous greasing to avoid sticking - leave no spot ungreased! I use homemade cake release and it works better than spray (thoroughly mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup shortening, and 1 cup veggie oil - brush on pan with pastry brush and refrigerate remainder for future use). I also had to adjust my baking time/temperature to avoid any burned cakes.

All in all, I'm glad that I have 2 sets of mini ball pans for the occasional spherical cake. With Amazon's 4-for-3 promo, this ended up being a good deal for me. Just remember that greasing this sucker is essential.

I used this pan to make individual pokeball cakes for my son's party. They were a big hit. The pan comes with suggestions for making baseballs, basketballs and clowns. Although the design is simple it provides a great shape that can be hard to obtain otherwise.

I ordered the mini ball pan to make a caterpillar cake. I had read other reviews, so I knew to spray the pan and use flour to keep the cake from sticking. I followed the provided baking instructions and it turned out great. I only ordered one pan so I had to refill the pan to use the rest of the batter. Keep in mind that each mini ball is one serving, so it would take a lot of balls to serve a large group of people.

Thank goodness another reviewer warned me that the cups are very small, they are! However, it was perfect for what I needed and I am very happy with it. Don't forget to butter or oil the inside very well as it is not non-stick but if well prepared the cakes just tumble out without any problems. I used it to make ladybug cakes for my daughter's birthday and will use it again to make soccer cakes for my sons birthday. This pan has 101 uses to it!

It's made with very thin material and not for commercial use. Unless you're careful!! But it does work.

Note - use a TON of oil/flour to prevent sticking, and bake times greatly exceed standard cupcake times due to greater depth/volume.

Great fun for a children's birthday activity. We bought 2 sets and made 2 batches of half spheres (flat side down) then had the kids (ages 6-12) decorate using vanilla frosting / crushed oreo cookies. Once the "planets" were fully terraformed (frosted), we topped with small plastic space aliens to complete the look.

I bought this pan to make an adorable brownie lady bug I saw in a Wilton Brownie book. I was very frustrated to find that it was extremely difficult to get the brownies out of the pan. I tried a little Pam. I tried a lot of Pam. I tried Pam coated with flour. Everytime I tried to get the brownies out, they stuck. Scooping them out made them chip and break. Finally, I found that if I kept gently pushing the edges down with the back of a spoon, the brownie would push up and out the other side. This would definitely not work with cake as it would crush the cake. I will eventually try the pan with cake batter, but I won't plan any special desserts with it until I test it. I am very skeptical.

Fast shipping; love this item; I use it with marshmallow fondant for lettering on cakes and have already used it several times

This pan makes cute individual cakes/snowballs. The metal it's made of is kinda thin, so I doubt it'll be one I pass down to my daughter, but it's cute & fun & it works great as long as you give it a little spray before baking.

I bought two of these pans to make some mini disco ball cakes for a 70s roller disco party for my kids. Preparing the pans takes a little time. You have to brush on the shortening with a pastry brush, then flour them. Makes for a bit of a mess, but it worked better than using the Baker's Joy spray with the flour in it.

The cakes bake quickly, although you get a little waste because you need to scrape off the bottoms so they rest flat. I put a little less batter in on the second batch so that it didn't rise as much. Each cake popped out perfectly intact. The batters made 15-16 cakes each, so unless you buy three, you'll have to do it in two batches in the oven.

Now the problem: decorating these little suckers. It's very difficult to just spread the icing on unless you hold them in your hand, because of the shape and size. It just didn't look good on my test cake. I decided to then use my decorating pump, which worked a lot better, but you can't do the bottom around the edge unless you're putting it directly on whatever you're going to serve it on. I was transporting the cakes (used a cake box) to the party, then transferring them to dessert plates. I decorated them on parchment so I could pick them up without messing them up, then did touch-ups at the party. Not ideal.

But the worst part? It took 10 minutes PER CAKE to do the icing with a pump. I made 30 cakes. You do the math! It took so long, my thumb and index fingers on both hands went numb for about 24 hours.

I can see many, many uses for cakes with this shape, but in the end, I don't think it's worth it if you need to do a lot of them that are going to be decorated. However, they'd be great for making strawberry shortcake or cakes where you can drizzle a sauce on. I definitely plan to use them again, just keep it simple.