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I'm making baby a cake for her birthday and the recipe says to use a 793g (1 lb 12oz) can to bake the base in (its a mushroom house, if u can imagine it! bit trippy, i know, but i'm mainly making it for my own pleasure! ) its quite an old book, so i dont know if things have changed and baking in an emptied food can is a big no-no nowadays, as i know you can't store food in the fridge in them once they're opened cos of oxidisation or something? has anyone ever used a can baking? and also, what would come in a can this size?! don't think i've actually ever seen one!

I can't answer your question as such, but if it's any use, I spotted something on instructables about using jars to make cakes in...?

The big cans of tinned toms that you can buy (at least in France) are about double the normal tin size which I think is usually just under 400g, so I imagine that's the right size. Can you find big tins in England?

I would have thought if you lined it with baking parchment then you shouldn't have any problems as the cake mixture won't be 'touching' the tin. But thats only a guess & not based on anything scientificy

i guess cos ive never looked for large tins of stuff ive never seen them but went to my asian grocers and found loads of stuff! bought a big tin of mango pulp which will be delicious stirred into cereal for breakfast (my dad advocates this!) and the tin is perfect! and u know, i never thought of lining it with parchment paper but that seems like the best idea for ease of getting it out too! brilliant! sorted!! thanx for your help!
can i just ask though as well, its not really an ish question as such but what about baking a cake in a pyrex bowl? (top of the toadstool). any tips?

There's no reason why you can't as we all bake puds in pyrex but I've never tried to get one out like a cake! Puds with spongey tops (even though the bowl has been greased) do seem to stick a bit more to pyrex than to a cake tin, especially the modern non stick type of ones. Greaseproof paper won't be very easy to use on that shape either, though I suppose it would be possible if you cut the paper up into smaller sections and brushed it with melted butter to stick it to the sides of the bowl.

Some tins seem to be coated with plastic inside - I would be a bit weary of them. Don't know if they can stand the temperatures at baking.

here is the cake! i used a big empty tin of mango puree for the base and it was absolutely fine! well proud of myself! it was a brilliant day!

That is brilliant - well done and I hope that baby appreciated it! At least she'll be able to look back at the photos of her cake in the future.

Urban Ayisha wrote:here is the cake! i used a big empty tin of mango puree for the base and it was absolutely fine! well proud of myself! it was a brilliant day!

That looks fantastic. Well done UA.

Martina

Nice one.