Baking and dishes
Silicone baking moulds
Useful if you bake in an air fryer, because a batter needs a container and small ones let the air between them. Not the same judgement as a silicone liner, for a reason worth understanding.
AirfryerHQ’s verdict
Useful for a specific job
Right for one particular job. If you do not do that job, it will sit in a drawer.
A silicone insert is marked down because it blocks air from food that wanted crisping. A baking mould holds a batter, which cannot be cooked any other way and was never going to be crisp underneath. So the objection does not apply — a container is the point. What matters instead is shape. Several small moulds with gaps between them let air circulate round each one, and manufacturers' own charts cook muffins that way: six at 160°C in thirteen minutes in one Philips table. One large mould that fills the basket behaves like the insert it resembles, setting the top long before the middle. It is rated situational rather than useful because most people baking in an air fryer already own something that will do.
What it actually does
Contains a batter or an egg mixture while it sets, in portions small enough for the air to get round, and releases it afterwards without greasing.
Individual cups or small shaped moulds in food-grade silicone — muffin cases, egg-bite trays, mini loaf shapes — that stand on the crisper plate. They are the same material as a silicone basket insert and are judged differently here, because they are doing a different job.
When it helps and when it does not
When it helps
- Muffins, cupcakes and egg bites, which manufacturers' own charts cook as separate pieces
- Small households baking four or six of something without heating a full oven
- Anything that would stick in a metal tin, since silicone releases without lining
When it gets in the way
- One large mould that covers the basket, which sets the top and leaves the centre raw
- Tall moulds in a shallow basket, where the top of the bake ends up close to the element and scorches
- Floppy moulds filled with wet batter, which are hard to lift in and out of a hot drawer without spilling
- Any expectation of a crisp base — silicone insulates, and the bottom will be pale
What it does to the airflow
Shelters what is inside it from moving air
The mould shelters what is inside it, which is what a batter needs. Leave a finger's width between moulds so air passes between them; pushed together they act as a single solid block.
What to use instead
A metal tin you already own, if it fits. Metal conducts heat into the base of a bake, which silicone does not, and several manufacturers name a tin in their own baking rows. Paper cases inside a rigid mould are fine; loose paper cases on their own are too light.
Using it safely
- It must be food-grade silicone rated at or above the temperature you bake at. Read the rating on the product you bought.
- It must stand stably on the crisper plate and not be so tall that the bake rises towards the element.
- Your manual governs. Some manufacturers name permitted materials, and some restrict you to their own accessories.
Temperature limit: about 200°C. Silicone bakeware is commonly rated in this region, but the rating belongs to the product rather than to silicone as a material. AirfryerHQ has not tested any.
What specific manufacturers say
Statements read from a named model’s own documentation. AirfryerHQ does not infer that an accessory fits a machine from its advertised capacity, and no manufacturer here publishes the dimensions that would let anybody do so.
Tefal Easy Fry Max EY245B40 5L Air Fryer
The manual names the materials permitted for a dish placed in the bowl: silicone, stainless steel, aluminium and terracotta.
Tefal Easy Fry Max EY245B40 5L Air Fryer — Instruction Manual
Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA555
The manual's baking rows specify the manufacturer's own baking pot, and its warnings say to use only original Philips accessories.
Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA55x — User Manual
Which machines it suits
Makes sense in: Basket air fryer, Dual-basket air fryer, Flex-drawer air fryer, Oven-style air fryer, Countertop oven with air fry.
Looking after it
Dishwasher safe in most cases. Silicone holds on to fat and smells; a wash in very hot water with washing-up liquid, and drying fully before storing, stops both.
Evidence and confidence
- Applies to
- Applies generally
- Why this rating
- Permission rests on a manufacturer naming silicone; the advice about size and spacing is reasoning from airflow, supported by the fact that manufacturers' own baking rows use individual pieces at a moderate temperature.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-09
What this does not cover
- No manufacturer we have read publishes a rule about the size or spacing of moulds. That part is reasoning, not instruction.
- The market article cited says of itself that nothing in it was tested, and is not used as evidence that moulds work.
- AirfryerHQ has not bought, fitted or used any accessory. Every judgement here is reasoned from what the accessory does physically and from what manufacturers and the cited test report.
Sources (4)
Tefal Easy Fry Max EY245B40 5L Air Fryer — Instruction Manual (PDF)
Groupe SEB (Tefal) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: A manufacturer naming silicone among the materials permitted for a dish placed in the cooking bowl.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 328/8568.
Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA55x — User Manual (PDF)
Versuni Netherlands B.V. (Philips Domestic Appliances) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: A manufacturer's food table cooking muffins as separate pieces at 160°C, and specifying a baking pot for cake and bread.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-09 from dam.versuni.com
8 great accessories for your air fryer
Which? — Reference work, archive or contemporaneous report (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That silicone baking moulds are among the accessories currently being sold for air fryers. The article states that it did not test them.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-09 from which.co.uk
AirfryerHQ assessment of airflow, element proximity and material behaviour
AirfryerHQ — Calculated or inferred by AirfryerHQ (Not jurisdictional)
Relied on for: The mechanism this is read against: forced convection, boundary-layer disruption and a small chamber.
AirfryerHQ's interpretation of what it says
Citation checked — the document exists and is described correctly
AirfryerHQ sells nothing and earns nothing here. There are no affiliate links, no sponsored placements and no brand recommendations anywhere in this section. The verdict above is what we think, arrived at before anybody asked whether it would sell anything.
Can it go in? The material questions
- Silicone liners and moulds — Heavy enough not to be lifted, and rated above the temperatures these appliances reach. The airflow question is the one that remains.
- Baking tins — Not optional for baking. Every chart in this catalogue that has a cake row also says to use a tin.
- Metal tins, trays and cookware — Explicitly permitted by one manufacturer for baking, and recommended by three others whenever a batter is involved.
If this is why you are here
- Burnt outside, raw inside — The temperature is too high for the thickness. Heat is finishing the surface before it can reach the middle.
Cooking pages this affects
Worth reading
Others in this category
Useful for a specific job
Oven-safe dish
It turns an air fryer into a small oven for the things that need a container. You almost certainly own one already, and the only real question is whether it fits with room for air round it.