The muffin Pan with Sled (Silicone) was purchased as a gift for our daughter. She was quite pleased with the gift. To date she has not as yet used the item.

The product was difficult to handle without a tray. It cooked well and the muffins came out of the pan easily. Handling was the only difficulty I encounted.

I saw the 3-star reviews here, but decided to ignore them as this pan was on sale for a very good price. That was a big mistake.

1. The first problem is with the size of the muffin cups -- they are significantly more shallow than in a typical mini-muffin pan.

2. The silicone warped from the heat while in the oven, spilling the meager contents of the tiny cups over the edges, making flat, crooked, ugly muffins.

3. The silicone did not release the muffins easily. I did spray it with nonstick spray before filling, and allowed the muffins to cool completely before I tried to get them out.

I didn't even bother to try and wash it, so I don't have any comment about the ease of washing. I won't be wasting any more time and ingredients in it, so I threw it away. I wish I could get my money back. This is not the quality you would expect from KitchenAid.

We have used silicone baking sheets before, which act as non-stick flexible surface that is easy to clean. We'd been noticing silicone bakeware more and more, and were interested in the idea of having the silicone non-stick, easy-clean surface combined with the baking pan. So we finally decided to purchase the kitchen-aid mini-muffin pan when I was interested in having a nice non-stick mold for making marshmallows.

My only comment on the sled is that it does its job. We purchased the pan with sled because the cost was only a little higher. The sled holds the flexible pan well.

Unfortunately the pan was not the wonderful non-stick surface that I had hoped. Even after dusting with corn starch, the marshmallows did not come out the least bit easy. Now this was a true test, as marshmallows are extremely sticky. My hopes were a bit high, and it is understandable that this pan failed here.

When we used it for making muffins, the muffins came out relatively easy, but not as easy I expected them to come out. They tasted pretty good though.

The real problem came in the cleaning. We soaked it in hot water, hand-washed it with a sponge and dish-soap and upon drying, there was clearly visible residue from the muffins! OK, no problem, so we tossed it in the dishwasher (these things are definitely dishwasher safe) and ran it through a standard cycle with dish detergent. After dishwashing, again, there was muffin residue! So I scrubbed and scrubbed with the sponge and soap again, but upon drying, there are still traces of residue.

What we thought was a wondeful merger of silicone and muffin-pan was not even close. This product does not compare to those quality silicone-based baking mats, and it is not a good non-stick muffin pan. I believe there are silicone pan products that may live up to the silicone baking mat's reputation. If I was brave enough to try again, I'd look for material that was more shiny than this product and made by a producer that has been doing silicone for awhile (e.g. Demarle). So, as before, we now stick with our silpat for cookies, and use a non-stick metal pan for muffins.

This is a fine muffin pan if you just think of it as such - the sled *does* come in handy when transporting it, and muffins baked in it come out nice and even.

However, don't think of this as a nonstick pan. It isn't.

While the matte surface makes it look a little nicer in my opinion, it does NOT instantly release anything baked in it like it should. I'm not sure which I'd rather have - a "real" silicone pan that is shiny and releases like it should, but wobbles when you move it, or this pan which is just a regular ol' muffin "tin" made out of a non-metal substance.

Use cooking spray - and if you want to try making marshmallows in it (like my husband did), at least think twice. The silver lining is that it cleans up easily and can go in the dishwasher. :)

** Update **

Well, I said there was a silver lining, but I'm taking that back. I put the stinkin' thing in the dishwasher after soaking it in hot soapy water and not being able to get it clean quickly. Guess what? My husband pulled it out and it WASN'T CLEAN!!! So he scrubbed it again. Not clean. I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am! I mean, it was blueberry muffins! If you can't use a muffin pan to make muffins, what good is it? I guess we're going back to the ol' metal 12 cup standby... what a shame. If only the silicone were shiny!

Wish I could change my star rating to 2 stars now.