Cake tins

• Circular cake tins are useful for making raw food flans and cakes, particularly where the base is going to be dehydrated.

• Generally it's about creating and controlling good looking circular shapes as part of raw food preparation.

Features to look out for.

• Make sure that cake tin has a fully removable base so that you can use the complete circle of the tin itself rather like a giant cookie cutter.

• You won't need more than one cake tin of any one size, but it might be useful to have some different sizes. For example you could make a flan base using a 22cm circle. By the time it has been dehydrated it will have shrunk a little, so then you could use a 20cm circle when adding the flan topping.

For making flans ...

• For making flan bases, you can use a 20cm (8inch) cake tin, or a 22cm if you have it.

• You only need the ring so make sure you buy a cake tin that has a removable base.

• You can just fit two 20cm circles onto an Excalibur dehydrator sheet across the diagonal. This might be useful when you are pushed for space in your dehydrator.

• Use the ring simply to form a circle. Put the ring onto a dehydrator sheet. Put the mixture in the middle and use a spatula to spread it evenly.

• Of course you need to remove the ring before putting the flan base into the dehydrator.

• Once the flan base is ready, you can use the cake tin ring once again, to control the flan topping.

• Simply put the ring around the flan base and then spread the topping in.

• Remove the ring before serving.

20cm cake tin ring (8 inches)

Pecan and date flan base

20cm cake tin ring

shaping a pecan and apple flan on top of

a Pecan and date flan base

20cm cake tin rings - two on a sheet