I am making a 3-d camera cake for a relative who is graduating from photography school. For the lens part of the cake I realized that the lens on her real camera is about the same dimensions as a soup-type can. So I gave it a shot. Made 3 cakes in 3 different sizes of cans. All 3 cracked and fell apart. The worst of the 3 however was DISGUSTING. I had used a can that had been for diced tomatoes. I didn't realize that it was coated on the inside. Let me just say that it was the NASTIEST smelling thing ever! 3 can cakes straight to the trash! And I still have that smell on my hands! GROSS!

OH that yucky almost rotten tuna fish smell! Lemon juice or mechanic orange hand cleaner will take that off your hands. You could bake a sheet and cut out circles. Freeze them and BC them together.

My mother and I use the old metal Folgers cans every year to make pumpkin bread in. It's the perfect gift size. They just need to be soaked, washed (in the dishwasher), and double-checked for cleanliness.

i made chocolate cake once in a rotel tomatoe can. I couldn;t figure out why the chocolate cake had a little 'heat' to it, but it wasn't bad, just hot chocolate!!

I wonder if these would turn out better if you lined the can with parchment paper? A big ring of it from top to bottom, kind of like you would do with a cake collar but with the purpose of just being a barrier between your cake batter and the actual can? Just thinkin' out loud here!

I washed all the cans in hot soapy water really well before using them, so the smell didn't come from that. But oh my word the smell of the one from the tomato can. Looking at the can it had a white epoxy(?) coating on the inside. None of the other 2 I baked in the cans smelled bad, they just fell apart when I unmolded them. We, too, have baked pumpkin bread in soup and/or coffee cans. That's why I was so surprised it didn't work. Fortunately I decided to make a couple of 4" rounds with the extra batter instead of cupcakes. Have the 4 inchers in the freezer, ready to be carved down tomorrow into my lens!

Well it does make sense that tomato cans are coated - the acid in the tomatoes would otherwise eat thru the metal VERY quickly. So this post is really a good reminder that if you are going to try cooking in a can, don't use a tomato can!

I have baked in cans before, but I used soup cans, they are not lined.

My best friend and my grandmother both bake in the metal coffee cans like a previous poster mentioned - they are AWESOME and you can always just put the coffee in a ziplog bag and freeze it if you don't need any right away - good luck

Since there is only my DH and I in the house, I have saved a lot of the fruit cans for baking in. When I do the WASC recipes, I usually split the batter between 2 6-inch springform pans to be popped into the freezer, and 2 or 3 pineapple cans. The smaller ones are really cute torted and iced between the layers.

I haven't tried any other but fruit cans, since I thought any other food cans might leech out into the cake. Glad I do what I do!

You might check out the canned fruit aisle in the grocery, or those small fruit juice cans for your lens.

I would do the bake a layer thing and cut out rings. Much better. So many cans are now lined to prevent that "canned" taste in acidic foods. Who knows what temperatures/ and for how long they can go?

I use cans occasionally to bake in - food came in them, so they are food safe. That is what I have used for my tractor wheels - a small coffee can for the back tires, and a soup can for the front ones. Mine didn't fall apart - they did fine. I used the WASC recipe (only made the chocolate recipe of it) Cut each cake into 4's and waaalaaa - 2 sets of tires!

I have one of those safety can openers that takes off the whole rolled edge and leaves a nice clean sharp edge (so much for safety). I cut off the top and bottom and use them to cut from a regular layer or sheet cake. I'd never be bothered baking in food cans for smaller cake pieces, better to get it done at one time and have extra to cut from if I need it.

I agree that most cans are food safe if they came with food in them. However, I don't know what temperatures cause the newer plastic linings to degrade. They all do. It is just how much and how many chemicals they release. I truly don't know.

FYI - if you look at your plastic wrap, it says to keep it an inch away from the food in a microwave. Most plastic bowls say microwave reheatable. They don't really want hot food in contact with the plastics.

That is easy to avoid, just use a plain metal can.

If it is shiney metal on the inside, it is ok. If it is white, it is not. I don't know of any coffee cans or soup cans (that I have purchased) that have had the white plastic in them. It is easy to see which is which once the can is opened. I actually have one of each saved with my baking pans so I don't have to go looking for one when I need it.

use coffee cans...unlined...
i've been baking fruit and pound type cakes in them for years...great for gift sizes...
grease and flour...and away you go....NO white liners...

I like the idea of baking a sheet cake and then cutting out the number of circles you need to make a lens, then BC them together. Perhaps, since it will be sitting on its side, you may want to dowel it together.

I remember on Ace of Cakes, someone was making a camera. They used a section of clear plastic piping, cut to length and sliced in 1/2 (into a semi-circle). They rested the cake in the semi-circle (which was now the bottom of the lens), sculpted the cake top to match the bottom (to form a complete circle) and then BCed and fondant from there. (I hope my description works. I know what I want to say, but sometimes these things get lost in translation.)

They just made a camera cake a few weeks ago on Ace of Cakes. For the lens they made a small shaped piece of styrofoam for the bottom half and then added a shaped chunk to the top.

That or use RKT, they stay firm, wrap in fondant well, and if you have the can size you want it to be you can stuff them in there to get the shapr (maybe... you might play heck getting it back out too). That way if you are like me and try to accomplish completely edible, there you have it.