Have you ever wanted to make a little 4″ round cake, but didn’t want to spend $6-9 bucks on another cake pan?! I have! In fact, the several times I’ve done one, I’ve baked them in 6″ tins, and cut them down. But, then I feel bad because I’ve “wasted” all that beautiful cake…either to my waistline or the garbage. So, what’s a girl to do!?
Well, I solved the problem at Safeway yesterday!! I was strolling down the tuna aisle and came across this…a perfect little 4″x2″ “cake tin”! – disguised as a 12 oz. tuna can!
I took two of them home (costing me just over $5 all together), cut one open and made a yummy big salad topped with tuna and lots of fix’ns for dinner last night! The other one will meet it’s doom in our bellies in the next few days when a tuna craving strikes again!
I’m so excited! I have a cake coming up where I need a little 4″ round cake, so I’ll keep you posted on the baking end of things!
It’s amazing what you can find in your local grocery store!
Thanks for looking!
That is such a good idea, I am going to definitely use this idea
Wow Jessica, what an excellent idea? I throw one of those every week!!! And I make lots of mini cakes! Never realized they are the same size. Thanks for sharing..
Veena
While this is a great idea, I would caution against it. The coating inside the can may release carcinogens into your delicious cake…
Soup cans are also good, if you need something tall.
Leana
Wow, what a clever ideaaaa!!!
Thank you Jessica, you always are tha’ best
Yes, I’ve seen the tall soup cans and have used those! – but I needed something wider and shorter…these were perfect!
Me encanta!! nice idea Jessica =;)
This is such a great idea! It’s amazing how little simple things can be sooooo handy, thank you for coming up with it!
I wouldn’t bake in a can. I’ve read that the plastic lining in aluminum cans is #7 (polycarbonate) plastic, which uses BPA. There are only very few companies that have a BPA-free lining. More are coming in to be BPA-free, but we’re not all there yet. Who knows what happens when you heat that can up?
http://guide.thesoftlanding.com/campbells-responds-to-concerned-parents-and-commits-to-removing-bpa-from-cans/
Yes I totally agree, the risks far outweigh the $6-7 you could be saving.
Jessica,
To use these for baking, would I just grease and bake as I would a normal tin? This is a very interesting idea as I bake small cakes all the time!
Yes! You can cover the sides/bottom with parchment paper sprayed with butter/flour to seal in the cake from the metal if there’s any worries about that!
Yeah I tried this once after seeing “tin can cakes” on Pinterest, and the one bite I took tasted SO disgusting (like metal and weird chemicals and who knows what else!) that I threw them all away immediately. I’m not usually one to be all paranoid about what is in the cans our food is canned in, but that bite totally proved to me that it cannot be good for us!
As long as you thoroughly wash them out and line the tin, they are ok to use in the oven! Most cans with a coating have an epoxy coating which can be heated up without the risk of major transference to food. The odd flavour that someone stated they tasted would have been from a non bpa coated tin. As a baker i always use whats to hand but with the hard and fast rule of doing a taste test first, ensuring that it meets your standards of excellence……..therefore you can only ever give your customers the best ,regardless of the item it was cooked in!!!
This is a study and test done by food safety experts below, hope this helps everyone to understand better the type of coating and its safety under heated conditions.
The Can Coating Migration Study
In 1995, after Brotons and coworkers reported migration of BPA from can coatings during food canning (Brotons et al, 1995), the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) initiated a study of BPA migration from can coatings (Howe et al, 1998). In the first phase of this study, the analytical signal was noted to have an unusual or unsymmetrical shape, suggesting that not all of the material detected was really BPA.
To follow up on the results of the first phase, nine laboratories conducted a series of tests to compare analytical methods for detecting BPA. The analytical methods tested included high performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) and gas chromotography with mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). The results of this second phase confirmed the presence of interfering materials (unidentified substances) that could be mistaken for BPA.
Two additional series of tests were conducted to identify the HPLC and GC/MS methods that best eliminated the interfering materials and to ensure that these methods could be reliably conducted in an independent laboratory (Wingender et al, 1998).
Using the preferred analytical methodology, fourteen can samples, representing food cans produced by the major American can manufacturers and their coating suppliers, were tested. Nine of the samples were identical to those examined in the initial phase of this study. All cans contained maximum levels of coating formulations using epoxy resin systems.
Detection of BPA migration was enhanced by using easily analyzed food simulating solvents rather than actual foods – either 10% ethyl alcohol to simulate water-based foods, such as fruit juice, infant formula, and other beverages, or 95% ethyl alcohol to simulate fatty foods, such as meats and other canned foods.
Storage conditions for sample cans containing the food simulating solvents were those prescribed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 1995, revised 2002) to exaggerate the normal canning processes used. For “hot- filled” products such as fruit juice, cans were filled with hot solvent (10% ethyl alcohol), held at 212° F for 30 minutes and stored for 10 days at 120° F. For “retorted” products (all other samples), cans were filled with the appropriate solvent (10% or 95% ethyl alcohol), heated under pressure at 250° F for two hours and then stored for 10 days at 120° F.
Bisphenol A levels in the food simulating solvents from the can samples were quantified using the HPLC and GC/MS analytical methods developed to reliably detect BPA without interference from other materials in the solvents. The lowest amount of BPA that can be detected (the limit of detection) using these procedures is 5 parts per billion.