Continuing series of Top 10 product innovations of the decade.
Product Innovation # 2: Silicone Baking Materials. 
Unless you were a French baker, until about a decade ago, you probably hadn’t encountered silicone baking materials. Today, if you are a baker, you’re surrounded gadgets such as cake pans, moulds, hot pads, trivets, and endless more products made from this material. Silicone (not to be confused with silicon which goes into computer chips) is a class of polymers that are generally flexible and translucent and have been used in a wide variety of products from adhesives and lubricants to surgical implants. It’s a great material for baking because it’s a poor conductor of heat (thus preventing burning), can withstand a huge range of temperature, and it’s flexible (thus easy to remove your baked good from the mold). Read more…