To help you find the best silicone muffin pan for your kitchen and baking needs, I personally baked with all of the products on this list. I assessed how the pans performed with standard box muffin mixes, including whether they could accommodate all of the batter and how evenly and quickly things cooked. I also assessed the products for their durability and how easy they are to use and clean. From budget-friendly buys to extra-large pans, these are the best silicone muffin pans for every kind of cook. What We Don’t Love: Maximum temperature is 428 degrees If you’re only going to buy one muffin pan, let it be this pretty silicone option from Trudeau. It has the same dimensions and well volume as traditional metal muffin pans, so it’s the ideal size for most recipes and box mixes. But, since it’s silicone, the cups are flexible so it’s easy to pop out your baked goods. Plus, it has a nice marble aesthetic that fits into any kitchen design scheme and stay-cool rubberized handles. Since the flexibility of silicone can be a detriment during baking, Trudeau created design features to offset any issues. This translates to the best part of the pan: the hardtop surface with a reinforced steel rim. It gives it enough structure to prevent spills when the cupcake wells are full. Unlike many other silicone baking pans, you don’t need to place this one on a baking sheet or worry about it tipping over before popping it into the oven. The pan is safe to put in the dishwasher and freezer, though it can only handle a maximum oven temperature of 428 degrees. Price at time of Publish: $34 Dimensions: 13 x 9 inches | Well Depth: 2 inches | Dishwasher Safe: Yes What We Don’t Love: Must be used with a baking sheet to prevent spills, slightly small wells This budget-friendly pan is a great nonstick option for muffins, mini quiches, and other baked treats. It’s made from platinum-grade silicone that’s safe in the dishwasher, freezer, and microwave. This muffin tin is very flexible, however. When testing it, I found that it’s important to place the empty pan on a baking sheet before you add any batter or dough to the 2.8-ounce wells. If you try to move the filled muffin pan, you’re likely to end up with a mess. After baking, however, it couldn’t be easier to clear your muffins or cupcakes from the pan. Every test baked evenly without excess browning on the bottom. Afterward, cleaning was a snap, with nothing sticking to the surface. Price at time of Publish: $14 Dimensions: 12.75 x 9.7 inches | Well Depth: 1.1 inch | Dishwasher Safe: Yes What We Don’t Love: Might be too large for standard muffin recipes If you’re a fan of large, fluffy muffins with a crisp top, this jumbo muffin pan is your best bet. It has the same steel-rimmed structured top as the other Trudeau pan, which prevents spills and makes transport easy, even when the wells are filled to the top. The pan’s silicone also won’t conduct heat too quickly, so your baked goods stay golden and firm all the way through without a too-dark bottom. Baking in a larger muffin pan can be tricky though. “The best way to fill cupcake pans is to use an ice cream scoop (known in the foodservice industry as a disher),” says Stefani Pollak, creator of Cupcake Project and co-founder of The Bake Fest. “Using a disher makes dispensing batter easy, and it can also help you fill wells with consistency. You’ll need a different size disher if you’re making standard cupcakes, jumbo cupcakes, or mini cupcakes.” During testing, the pan was easy to maneuver, thanks to the grippy handles, which cool down quickly out of the oven. Nothing stuck to the muffin wells, and it was easy to clean right in the dishwasher. One downside is that this is only oven-safe to 428 degrees. Price at time of Publish: $33 Dimensions: 12.75 x 9.7 inches | Well Depth: 1.1 inch | Dishwasher Safe: Yes What We Don’t Love: Can easily overflow in the oven This bright red mini muffin pan is great for mini brownies, kid’s birthday cupcakes, and other two-bite treats. The great thing about miniature muffins is that you get more of the crispy muffin top in every bite! This super flexible 24-cup muffin tin is very easy to clean and requires no grease or liners to remove your baked goods. It has a wide temperature tolerance from minus 104 to 446 degrees, which makes it great for freezer recipes as well as baking. Like the CakeTime muffin pan, you’ll need to keep this one on a baking sheet, as it’s too flexible to move when the wells are full. In my tests, the muffin pan also did not accommodate a full batch of batter from a boxed muffin mix. The 2-tablespoon wells filled up before we could use all of the batter and overflowed on top during baking, so there weren’t distinct muffin tops. Pollack has tips on how to avoid these mishaps. “The height you should fill a cupcake liner varies by cupcake recipe,” she says. “I recommend baking a test cupcake if you are trying a new recipe. Fill one cupcake well halfway and bake according to the recipe. See how high the cupcake rises. Some cupcake recipes don’t rise at all, while others will double in size. Use the test cupcake’s height to determine whether you should fill the remaining cupcakes more or less than halfway.” Price at time of Publish: $22 Dimensions: 13 x 9.5 inches | Well Depth: 1 inch | Dishwasher Safe: Yes What We Don’t Love: More flexible than structured muffin pans, expensive Silpat is known for making excellent nonstick surfaces for bakers and cooks alike. This 12-cup muffin pan incorporates the brand’s signature commitment to durable, easy-to-use, and easy-to-clean construction in a mold perfectly suited to your favorite muffin recipe. It’s made of the same fiberglass fabric coated in food-grade silicone. The slightly deeper wells on this will give your baked goods an elegant French bakery-style shape, with more crisp, golden exterior surface area. It also prevented any of my tests from overflowing and creating a double muffin top. However, the deeper wells can make it a little trickier to remove the muffins after baking. For best results, let your muffins or cupcakes cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pan before pushing them up from the bottom to release. Price at time of Publish: $65 Dimensions: 15.75 x 11.5 inches | Well Depth: 1.5 inches | Dishwasher Safe: Yes
How We Tested
Our tester and writer Lizzy Briskin sifted through dozens of highly-rated silicone muffin pans, closely looking at consumer reviews and available manufacturer information, to choose her top picks. We then purchased these products for Lizzy so she could put them to the test in her home kitchen. She made her favorite recipes in each pan and then assessed how the recipe performed, if any of the pasties stuck, and how easy or difficult it was to remove the hot pan from the oven. Then, she washed and dried each one to see if any of the finish easily came off. After testing, Lizzy submitted feedback about what she liked and didn’t like about each product and rated each one on the following features: Design, Durability, Nonstick Properties, Cleaning, and Overall Value. Learn more about how we test products.
What to Look for When Buying a Muffin Pan
Trays vs. Individual Cups
Frequent home bakers may like to have a selection of standalone muffin cups as well as trays on hand. The benefit of muffin pans is that they’re easy to maneuver as one piece in the kitchen. It’s also fewer pieces to keep track of. However, they can be awkward to store. Pollack likes to bake in individual cups on a cookie sheet for large or specialty bakes that she’ll decorate with extravagant toppings. Unlike silicone molds, however, she recommends “lining baking cups with cupcake liners so they keep their color during the bake as they typically aren’t 100% grease-proof.”
Shapes
The shape of your muffin pan comes down mostly to personal preference. If you prefer a taller muffin with a narrow bottom and top, look for an option with deeper wells like the Silpat pan. Extra-large muffin pans tend to produce wide, squat muffins that take a bit longer to bake through. You can also find specialty shapes that can offer something fun for a festive occasion like the holidays but might not be your everyday go-to.
Maintenance
When it comes to cleaning, silicone is a home cook’s dream. Thanks to those same properties that help your cupcakes and muffins pop right out of their molds, other baked-on bits are also easy to remove from the surface of your pan. And best of all, silicone is almost always dishwasher safe. All of the products we tested can be cleaned in the dishwasher, but be sure to check the manufacturer’s recommendations for any new kitchen products. One thing to note is that silicone often doesn’t dry all the way in the dishwasher. If that’s the case, simply let your muffin pans air dry before storage.
Should you grease silicone pans?
Most silicone muffin pans don’t require grease. The silicone finish is enough to easily pop your baked muffins out of their mold. However, if you’re worried about things sticking or it’s your first time using a new mold, it can’t hurt to add an extra layer of security with a light coating of nonstick spray. In particular, deeper muffin wells are more likely to stick than wider, shallower wells.
Do you still need liners with a silicone muffin pan?
In most cases, you can also skip the paper or foil cupcake liners. This is a great way to reduce waste in the kitchen. However, some bakers prefer the look of a frilly paper liner. They can also make things more sanitary if you plan to serve your baked treats to guests.
Why Trust Simply Recipes?
We thoroughly research the top products on the market to identify the best tools, appliances, and gadgets for home cooks. From tried-and-true brands to up-and-coming newcomers worth paying attention to, we stay in the loop about all things kitchen-related so you never miss a bite. All of the products in this article were tested and reviewed by Lizzy Briskin, a chef, food writer, and recipe developer whose favorite muffin is blueberry-lemon. Read Next: The Best Baking Tools
