I want to do one of the wine bottle cakes I have seen on the site and would like to bake my cake in a can so that it is round and I don't have to carve it. I have never baked in a can so I'm not sure of a couple of things...how full to make the can, what type of can to use, baking temperature of oven and most importantly...how do I get the cake OUT of the can once it's baked! Any help is greatly appreciated. I want to make a couple of practice runs before I do the wine bottle cake for real. Thanks in advance for your help.

Make sure you grease and flour (or whatever your choice of cake release is) the inside of the can well - use whatever size can that fits the size cake you want. Make sure the can is not one of those with a plastic like filling, and also make sure the can sides don't have ridges or indentations of any type - just straight up and down sides. Sometimes the cake will slide out on it's own. If not, the easiest way to remove the cake after baking is to carefully use a can opener on the bottom. You may need help with this part. The can should be about 2/3's full of batter. My mother used to make cakes in a can all the time. I don't know if it's still around, but the cans my mother used were from boston baked beans - I don't remember the brand. HTH

I tried it and my cake didnt cook all the way through, but here is the advice I had read:
Find a can that is unlined on the inside. Dont use tomato cans, you can see the white lining on the inside. So find a can without lining, wash it, and put it in a 350 degree oven for a while to make sure it is clean. I then greased and floured the bottom of the can and lined the edges with parchment or wax paper. Fill 2/3 full and bake at 325 degrees. I think mine didnt work because it was a scratch carrot cake: I think it might have worked if I used a box mix.
I had zero problems with it sticking
Good luck!

when I made a 6-pack of beer cake (in my photos) I baked the cakes in a washed out beer can that had the top cut off. I greased it really good and baked at 325. it worked out great. hth... btw, I used box mix

luminajd - did you not grease the sides of your can/parchment at all? My mother used to bake scratch date bread in the cans, and that's very sticky - it always came out of the can and baked well.

I recently baked a cake in a raviolli can and it turned out great! I used a box mix, greased it reallly well (with cake release - foolproof - love the stuff), turned the oven down to 325 with an extended bake time (10- 15 mins) and filled the can 2/3 full.
It also carved well when frozen. However, for my needs, the mix wasn't dense enough for a 3D cake and with fondant on top, the cake sunk somewhat. I am planning on doing it again and using a pound cake recipe. I do find denser, homemade cakes carve better anyway. Oh, my Ukrainian grandmother baked Ukrainian Easter Bread in cans all the time - it worked great! Good luck!

How big in diameter do you want your bottle to be? You could bake a bunch of tuna can size cakes and stack them. The neck could be RKT. There are also large size chicken and turkey cans (5"wide x2"tall...I buy mine at Sam's) which could make your cake a lot bigger. The problem with the deep and wide cans (5"wide by 5"tall) is they are hard to get done in the middle without the outside getting too dry and overdone. Stacking makes more sense to me.

Correction: I just re-measured the chicken/turkey cans from Sam's...they are 4" wide by 2" tall.

Thank you to everyone for your great suggestions. I'm making the wine bottle cake in December for my brother's birthday so I have lots of time to practice. I'm going to try several of the ideas including cake mix vs. pound cake recipes etc. Thanks for all the guidance. I LOVE THIS SITE!!!!