I think the Wilton Bake Even Strips sound like a great idea and I'm thinking about buying them, but I have a few questions first and hopefully someone can help me out!
First, and most importantly, do they really work?
Second, are they reusable? In the picture, they look disposible, but if they are, that's pretty expensive. If they are reusable, can you reuse them forever or is there a maximum number of times you should use them before they stop working properly?
Last, is there anything else that I should maybe know before buying them?
Thanks!
i have some, but haven't had the chance to use them yet. I hear they work very well and came highly recommended. They are reusable. I don't know if there is a certain number of uses...
I bought the big kit and they were in there. I'll let you know my experience with them later this week. If you are new to this and need EVERYTHING, it seems worth it to buy the big kit. With a 40% coupon its $78. It would only be $65 if you had a 50% coupon. Its definitely worth it. I just wished I hadn't bought student kit 1 before I bought the set. It seems like everything in student kit 1 is in there. HTH
I borrowed my MIL's over two months ago and haven't returned them yet. Luckily I've taken over all the cake decorating and she hasn't needed them. They are reusable and, from what I've heard, they last a very long time as long as you take care of them. They are wonderful and I will probabaly have to buy my own, or buy her some new ones and keep these.
The only downside to them....there isn't a hump on the cake that needs to be cut off and eaten...my family misses that part 
Rambo, I'll miss that part too! Thanks to everyone for your responses. I think I will buy them and try them out. I had never heard of these before and I had always wondered how people always had flat cakes.
I just read in a few posts elsewhere that you can achieve the same effect using papertowel. You just soak them and then run them through your fingers to get the excess water out and then it'll just stick to the outside of the pan. I'd be worried about them burning or catching on fire in the oven though.
Anyone have any experience or suggestions with this?
Yes, they're worth it. Yes, they're reusable. Mine, however started to get crackly and they were getting hard to wet (not absorbing water well.) For years I have been using homeemade ones which I like better. I hold them onto the pan with binder clips. Mine are made from a heavy quilted cotton. I have not heard of using paper towels, but terry cloth towels, yes.
I am in the minority here. I wouldn't waste your money on them. 
I just baked 4 cakes, using magic line pans, using (2 ) 12 inch pans and (2 )10 inch pans. I baked one 12 inch and one 10 inch with the strips and the other two without. There was no difference at all. Used same recipe, same oven, same everything, only difference was the bake even strips and honestly, there was absolutely no difference.
Maybe with cheaper pans they might work, but for the magic line, I just don't think you need them.
Oh and one other thing, make sure when you are done with them to dry them out completley, any mositure left in them can cause them to mildew. YUCKO, I had to throw out 2 strips, because I stored them damp. Also, they leave marks on the outside of my pan.
I do have, and occasionally use, the Wilton strips - I soak them in warm water for several minutes before using them. I prefer my home-made strips of towel, but I fold a strip of aluminum foil and place that over the damp towel strip, just like the reflective coating on the Wilton strips. I cut strips the full length of a bath towel and serged the edges to prevent raveling, and I made the strips about 4 1/2" wide. That way, I can fold them to fit either 2" deep pans or 3" deep pans. I can throw the towel strips into the laundry, and I can reuse the foil several times.
My instructor said that in a pinch, you can take a long strip of paper towels, fold them in half again and again until they are approx. 1 1/2" and get them nice and wet - then wrap in foil and use as a strip. She said she does this on the really huge pans when she doesn't have a long enough one. Ihave never tried it though. I always forget to use the strips but the couple of times I remember, they have worked beautifully.
I used the strips once. One layer was perfect; when I took the other layer out of the pan, I noticed a depression in the edge of the cake the size of a small egg as though it was baked over an egg mold. Filled with icing and was no problem BUT it was an imperfection. I read up on causes of depressions in cake and "moisture" was cited as a possibility. Use strips once--had the problem--never used strips before or since, no problem. Hmmm.
I am for and against the strips. I determine if I will use them by what pan I am baking in.
If I bake in wilton pans then I use them (just make sure you soak them REALLY well or they will start to bake before your cake is done-I put competely covered in a bowl while i mix up my cake with something holding them down under water) They work great when I am using the wilton pans.
If I am baking in Magic Line pans then I don't use them. The Magic line pans bake perfect for me everytime and i ahve tried the strips on them and my cake edges were way to moist and were hard to ice b/c the cake hadn't set on the sides... made a mess for me.
Not sure if this helped your decision or not, but these are my experiences
I've tried two times and haven't noticed a difference. Maybe I'm not soaking long enough...guess I'll give them another shot. They came in my kit I bought so I might as well play with them!
I've used mine a few times and really don't notice any difference at all. I use about four metal cores (made from tin foil) and it makes mine come out perfectly flat. I wouldn't waste my money on them again.
Samantha
I use about four metal cores (made from tin foil)
How did you make these foil cores? HOw do you use them? Do you throw them out after?
I bought the strips in a four pack and gave 2 of them to my mother. I don't know if we got bad strips or what because for some reason the cakes we use the strips on always have a strange taste to them. We baked 1 cake with the strips and they had the odd taste and then baked another cake without the strips (same cake mix) to see if it was something in the oven causing it and the second cake came out fine. I have heard of a few others having this problem, but not many. Instead of using the strips I now use an inverted flower nail in all of my cakes. It seems to work just as well.
(doesn't it fall over?)
You put it in the pan flat-side down. The cake will probably rise above the point of the nail. When you turn the cake over, that big part is on the outside of the bottom of the cake, you just pull it out, it only leaves a hole the size of the stem, and maybe a small 1/8 inch indent where the head was ... easily covered with frosting.
I spray Pam on the flower nail and it just pops right out after baking. I think these help them bake to the middle but my cakes still get a dome - is the nails supposed to eliminate the dome too?
I don't use Wilton's Bake Easy strips, but I use the same type of teflon-coated strip that I get from my cake supply wholesaler. They come in a big coil of one long strip, and I cut the strips to the right length for each pan. I have been using the same ones for 3 years now and they show no signs of wearing out. I will never bake a cake without them. I do use the flower nail in large cakes (not sheet cakes, just rounds and squares larger than 10"), but I still use the strips for those cakes, too. My cakes always bake perfectly with the strips. I can't say enough good things about them. 
dogluvr ... If your oven is completely level, you should be able to bake two cakes side by side. My experience is that in a gas oven, get as many cakes in there as you can, on all shelves, and they will all bake just perfectly. In an electric oven, only bake on one shelf.
By the way, is your avatar a picture of your dog? Soooooo adorable!!! 
Does anyone have any comments on baking 2 at once....are you only supposed to bake one at a time.
I never bake two at once. I'm afraid to take a chance!
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