Cake in a tin in an air fryer
Fresh — the short answer
150°C (302°F) for 35–40 min
- For
- 500g in total
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer
- Published for
- Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA555
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Check
- A skewer comes out clean
In a tin at 150–160°C; the published times run from twenty minutes to an hour, and they are not for the same amount of batter.
Manufacturer figures with no state given — 3 from named machines, listed further down this page.
Questions people ask about cake in a tin — 2 answered further down this page.
Fresh
The quick answer
150°C (302°F) for 35–40 min
Published range for 500g in the XL cooking and baking pot.
- Assuming
- 500g in total
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer
- Published for
- Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA555
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Result
- Just cooked
Preparation
In the XL cooking and baking pot, as the row's note prints. The note says to check the doneness before taking the cake out.
How to tell it is done
- A skewer comes out clean
- The top springs back and the edges have pulled away from the tin
Where these figures came from — fresh
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- A published row from the food table for this machine's 6-litre big pan. The manual says above the table that its cooking times are guidelines for fresh ingredients, and states that preheating is not necessary.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this model. It is evidence about this appliance and is not general advice.
- The word fresh is the table's and not the row's: the manual prints above this table that its cooking times are guidelines for fresh ingredients, and this row's own title names no state.
- This machine's two pans are not interchangeable. The figure is for the big pan; the small pan has its own table.
Sources (1)
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: The temperature, time and quantity for cake in tin.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-09 from dam.versuni.com
Leftover (reheating)
No time or temperature for this, and not by accident
Leftover (reheating) is a real question for cake in a tin. AirfryerHQ holds no published figure for it: not one of the manufacturer manuals read for this catalogue gives a chart row for this food in this state.
We are not going to produce one by adjusting the fresh figure above. A time arrived at that way would appear on this page looking exactly like a time somebody measured, and you would have no way to tell the difference.
What still governs, figure or no figure
These rules come from national food-safety authorities and apply whether or not anybody has published a cooking time. They are the part of this question we can answer.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within one to two hours, keep the fridge between 0 and 5°C, and eat leftovers within 48 hours.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- There is no sensory test for this rule, and that is the point: food held too long at the wrong temperature does not necessarily look, smell or taste different
If it has not got there: Throw it away. This is the one rule in this catalogue where the remedy is not 'cook it longer', because cooking does not reverse it.
Important: Cooked rice is the sharpest case: Bacillus cereus toxins form at room temperature and survive reheating. Rice left out for more than an hour goes in the bin.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Reheat leftovers until steaming hot all the way through, and only reheat them once.
Target: 70°C in the thickest part, or an equivalent from the table below.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- Steam rising from the centre, not just the edges
- The middle is hot to the touch, tested after removing it from the appliance
If it has not got there: Keep going, and break dense food up or spread it out so the heat can reach the middle. If it will not heat through evenly, a microwave to get the centre hot followed by the air fryer to crisp the surface is a better tool for the job than the air fryer alone.
Important: Cooked rice and pasta left at room temperature can develop Bacillus cereus toxins that reheating does not destroy. If cooked rice has been out of the fridge for more than an hour, discard it rather than reheating it.
| Temperature | Held for | Measured at |
|---|---|---|
| 70°C | 2 min | the centre of the food |
| 75°C | 30 sec | the centre of the food |
What we do hold for cake in a tin: fresh. That is a different question, not a starting point for this one.
Manufacturer figures with no state given
Each of these is a published figure for one named machine. The manufacturer does not say whether this is fresh or frozen. So they are kept apart from the figures above, and not used as the answer for any of them.
Tower T17023 2.2L Air Fryer (under a safety recall: check the recall before using this machine): 160°C for 20–25 min
Printed against 300 g, one weight and not a band, with the remark 'Use baking tin'.
Cookworks 5L Digital Air Fryer KDF-596D: 160°C for 25 min
The Cake programme's default of twenty-five minutes at 160°C. No weight or tin size is printed.
Philips Airfryer Series 5000 XXL HD9285/93 7.2L: 160°C for 50–60 min
A published 800g in the baking accessory.
Questions people ask about cake in a tin
- What tin can I bake a cake in, and how full?
- One that fits with a gap all round, so air can still move past it. One manufacturer's manual says to place a cake tin or oven dish in the bowl and, for mixtures that rise, not to fill it more than halfway. A deep, narrow tin makes the underbaked middle on this page worse; a wide, shallow one helps.From a manufacturer’s printed instructions: Tefal Easy Fry Max EY245B40 5L Air Fryer — Instruction Manual. Baking tins in an air fryer
- Can I cover the top with foil to stop it burning?
- Only if it cannot move. A loose sheet of foil over a cake is exactly the light, flat thing the fan lifts into the element. If you cover it, the foil has to be crimped tightly to the rim of the tin, and your manual has to permit foil at all, which some do not.A general cooking principle, not a measurement. What the manuals say about foil
What usually goes wrong
A domed, cracked top over an underbaked middle. The element is close and the air is fast, so the surface sets before the batter has finished rising and the cake pushes up through its own crust. 160°C is already a concession to this; a loose foil cover for the first half is the other one, and it runs straight into the question of whether foil belongs in your machine.
Running the appliance safely
The rules for the machine are the same whatever is in it: plug it straight into a wall socket, leave clear space round it, do not overfill it, do not leave it running unattended, and unplug it at black smoke or an electrical smell. They are set out once, each with its source and what to do if it has already happened, and not repeated on every food. Every rule for running an air fryer safely.
Cakes and bakes in fast-moving hot air
A cake batter is a liquid that has to set into a foam, and moving air is hostile to that in two ways: it dries and sets the top surface before the middle has risen, and it can physically disturb a wet batter. Both are why the published temperature is thirty to forty degrees below what the same appliance uses for chips, and why the manuals insist on a tin — the tin shields the batter from direct airflow and turns the appliance into a small convection oven. A cake baked directly in a drawer is not a cake baked slightly worse; it is a different and much less successful thing.
Where to go from here
The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.
- Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. A probe measures yours, which is what the safety rule on this page asks for.
- How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
- Reheating leftoversA different question governed by a different rule — steaming hot throughout, and only once.
- Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.
Easily confused with
- Muffins — A different cooking problem with a different answer.