The present invention concerns a cake mould, which is suitable for containing a substance to be baked, at least comprising a bottom plate and a wall positioned basically perpendicular to the bottom plate, the wall being detachable from the bottom plate.

Cake moulds with a detachable wall are commonly known. One could, for example, think of a springfoim pan, as described, for example, in the German 'Gebrauchsmuster', no. 92 17 802.2, which has a round bottom plate surrounded by a ringform wall which is detachable and clamped around the bottom by means of a suitable clamp. The inside of the wall is commonly equipped with a groove which allows the ridge of the bottom plate.

These type of cake moulds commonly have a fixed, mostly round shape, whereas the present invention aims at providing a cake mould according to the one referred to at the beginning, which need not necessarily have a round shape, yet can have various shapes. Although these type of 'fantasy' cake moulds are already known, they only involve cake moulds with a bottom plate and the wall made of one piece.

The present cake mould referred to at the beginning is characterised in that the wall is flexible and is attached to the bottom plate by means of fastening organs, said fastening organs comrising first fastening organs which are provided at the bottom plate according to a pattern, as well as second fastening organs which are provided at the wall, and in that by mutual cooperation of fastening organs it is basically the wall that follows the pattern of the first fastening organs.

The bottom plate contains the first fastening organs, which are provided in the bottom plate according to a certain pattern. The wall is flexible and, if not combined, it is primarily straight. In addition to this, the wall is provided with the second fastening organs which can cooperate with the first fastening organs.

When attaching the first fastening organs to the second fastening organs, the wall will be bent and shaped according to the pattern of the first fastening organs. The pattern of the first fastening organs thus determines the final shape of the cake mould. Since the wall is commonly straight if not combined, yet can take any shape, it is the same for every desired shape. Subsequently, by providing different bottom plates with different patterns of the first fastening organs, cake mould bottoms of different shapes are possible due to the flexible wall. In practice, this means that the cake mould can be supplied by means of one or more bottom plates, whether or not by using different patterns of the first fastening organs, in combination with a sufficient amount of - universal- walls. After using the cake mould, the wall can be removed easily from the bottom plate and, if desired, can be applied again to the same or another bottom plate.

In a particular embodiment the first fastening organs comprise slot elements, whereas the second fastening organs comprise flexible lip elements extending from the bottom of the wall. These lip and slot elements cooperate by putting the lip elements through the slots and bending them subsequently.

In another embodiment the first fastening organs comprise flexible lip elements which are basically perpendicular to the plane of the bottom plate, whereas the second fastening organs comprise slot elements which are close to the bottom of the wall.

Again, the lip elements are to be put through the slots and bent in order to establish the connection between the bottom plate and the wall.

In order to prevent the substance to be baked, for example cake mixture, from flowing away through the bottom of the wall and the bottom plate, the wall of the cake mould in an advantageous embodiment is also equipped with supplementary sealing means to establish an adequate sealing between the wall and the bottom plate.

These types of sealing means are preferably flexible sealing lips which extend from the bottom of the wall. If the wall and the bottom plate are combined, the sealing lips can be bent towards the inside, so that the substance to be baked is poured or placed onto the lips and thus the substance is prevented from flowing away.

The lip elements preferably alternate with the sealing lips.

Both the bottom plate and the wall can be made of durable materials, e.g. aluminium, involving simply one requirement, i.e. the wall is to be flexible. For the sake of user- friendliness, the bottom plate and the wall are preferably made of disposable material.

Advantageously, the disposal material is to be selected from the group which includes cardboard, plastic or laminate. These materials are generally inexpensive and using them provides a very user-friendly cake mould.

Adventageously, the disposable material, that is, the relevant side that comes into contact with the substance to be baked, is covered with an anti-adhesive agent. As a result, the wall and the bottom plate can be removed easily from the cake after using them, without requiring the cake mould to be greased before usage.

Although the wall is flexible and thus can be bent in every desired shape, it is preferred that the wall, after shaping it into the appropriate form, basically keeps this desired shape, not only as a result of combining the first and the second fastening organs, but it should also be able to do so in itself. To this end, the wall is preferably equipped with one or more facets, in which said facets are advantageously made by corrugation. Thus, when bending the wall, the corrugations can be bent similarly and, as a consequence, the wall basically stays in the desired shape. As a result, the complete cake mould is also more stable.

The invention is explained in more detail below by means of the drawing annexed, in which: figure 1 shows a complete cake mould according to the present invention; figure 2 shows a part of the wall of the cake mould with the second fastening organs; figure 3 shows a part of the bottom plate of the cake mould with the first fastening organs; figure 4 shows an incomplete version of the cake mould; figure 5 shows an incomplete version of the cake mould in another embodiment; figure 6 shows a top view of an embodiment of the bottom plate; and figure 7 shows a top view of another embodiment of the bottom plate.

The drawings are purely schematic and not drawn to scale. Particularly for purposes of clarity, some dimensions have been represented in a greatly exaggerated manner.

Whenever possible, corresponding parts in the figures are indicated with the same reference number.

Figure 1 shows the cake mould 1 according to the present invention, which comprises bottom plate 3 with wall 2 extending basically perpendicular to bottom plate 3. Wall 2 is made of flexible material. If desired, both wall 2 and bottom plate 3 can be made of disposable material, e.g. cardboard. Wall 2 is equipped with second the fastening organs, i.e. lip elements 4. This wall 2 including its lip elements 4 is shown in greater detail in figure 2. In order to attach wall 2 to bottom plate 3, the first and second fastening organs need to cooperate. To this end, lip elements 4 are to be put through slot elements 6 in the bottom plate, after which the lip elements are bent back at the lower side of bottom plate 3. Figure 3 shows bottom plate 3 with slot elements 6 in more detail. Wall 2 preferably has several facets which are shaped by means of corrugation and by subsequently bending corrugations 5.

By corrugation and by subsequently bending wall 2 into the desired configuration, the wall basically keeps its desired shape. In order to stiffen wall 2 even more, it is preferably equipped with a corrugation line 11, so that the top of wall 2 can be bend outwardly along this line 11.

Figure 4 shows the way in which wall 2 can be attached to bottom plate 3. Wall 2 is flexible and is a primarily straight strip, if not combined. Bottom plate 3 is provided with a pattern of the first fastening organs, shaped as slot elements 6. In order to attach wall 2 to bottom plate 3, lip elements 4 and slot elements 6 need to be combined by putting lip elements 4 through slot elements 6, after which they are bent at the lower side. For this purpose, as is shown is figure 4, wall 2 is bent, in order to basically match the pattern of slot elements 6 in bottom plate 3.

Figure 5 shows a cake mould bottom similar to the one in figure 4, only differing in the fact that wall 2 is equipped with supplementary sealing means, shaped like flexible sealing lips 9. These sealing lips 9 can be bent inward when attaching wall 2 to bottom plate 3, so that the substance to be baked ends onto lips 9 instead of flowing away between wall 2 and bottom plate 3. Although this is not clear from the embodiment shown, the width of sealing lips 9 at the position at which they are actually bent, is preferably equal to the distance between lip elements 4.

Although the cake mould according to the present invention can have a common form, e.g. applying bottom plate 3 as shown in figure 5, it is also possible to have a cake mould in a so-called fantasy shape. This is illustrated in figure 6, which shows bottom plate 3 in the form of a guitar. Due to the fact that wall 2 is flexible and when combined with the fastening organs of bottom plate 3 is shaped according to the pattern of bottom plate 3, wall 2 can extend peφendicular from the bottom plate 3 in a shape similar to the pattern.

The outer edge 8 of bottom plate 3 may be shaped according to the pattern of the first fastening organs 6, as indicated by reference number 8A, though it may also take another, for example, rectangular shape, as indicated by reference number 8B.

Wall 2 need not be of one piece along the contour of the cake mould 1, yet make include several parts. In order to prevent openings in wall 2, the wall ends with its lip elements 4 overlap so that at least one slot cooperates with 'double' lip elements 4. The same measure may be taken for closing the ends, as shown in figure 1 by means of reference number 7.

After using cake mould 1, wall 2 can be removed easily from bottom plate 3 by folding lip elements 4 back into their original position and taking them out of the slots.

The advantage of the cake mould according to the present invention is that this cake mould can be supplied in almost any desired shape, considering the fact that the wall is universal, while the pattern of the fastening organs in the bottom plate determines its final shape. By using different bottom plates, the shape of the cake mould may vary.