Flexible mould for food baking

Abstract

A flexible mould for food baking, comprises a body moulded integrally from a silicone material, having a base and a peripheral wall extending around the base for containing food baking ingredients. The body includes a rim portion extending along an upper edge of the wall around the cavity. The rim portion has a reinforcement frame co-extending therewith, which is moulded integrally with the rim portion from a relatively harder silicone material such that the frame provides a relatively more rigid support to facilitate holding of the body.

Description

The present invention relates to a flexible mould for baking food such as bread or cookies.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

More specifically, the invention relates to flexible food moulds made of a flexible silicone elastomer material having integrated reinforcement means.

Moulds made of flexible or deformable materials are known and widely used for cooking and especially baking. One example of such moulds is bakeware containing silicone elastomer material, generally known in the art as “silicone bakeware”. The major advantage of using silicone bakeware lies in their flexibility which enables easy removal of baked food items from the bakeware.

Most existing silicone bakeware has a notable weakness in maintaining structure/shape when they contain food baking ingredients that are heavy and in semi-liquid form before baking, especially while they are being gripped and lifted by their rim portions.

The invention seeks to obviate or at least alleviate such a problem or shortcoming by providing an improved flexible mould for food baking.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, there is provided a flexible mould for food baking, comprising a body moulded integrally from a first resiliently deformable material, having a base and a peripheral wall extending around the base and upstanding therefrom to define a cavity for containing food baking ingredients. The body includes a rim portion extending along an upper edge of the wall around the cavity. The rim portion has a reinforcement frame co-extending therewith, which is moulded integrally with the rim portion from a second resiliently deformable material that is relatively more rigid than the first resiliently deformable material, such that the frame provides a relatively more rigid support to facilitate holding of the body.

Preferably, the frame extends continuously around the rim portion.

It is preferred that the rim portion comprises a flange extending outwardly from the upper edge of the wall.

It is further preferred that the frame extends along an outermost edge of the flange.

It is yet further preferred that the frame has a cross-section extending downwardly from the edge of the flange.

Advantageous, the wall, the rim portion and the frame have a combined cross-section that is hollow.

In a preferred construction, the flange includes two parts on opposite sides of the body, each part extending to a relatively greater extent outwardly from the upper edge of the wall and acting as a handle.

More preferably, each handle includes a reinforcement member moulded integrally therewith from the second resiliently deformable material.

Further more preferably, each reinforcement member is located on an upper surface of the corresponding handle.

Further more preferably, both reinforcement members are separate from the reinforcement frame.

It is preferred that the first resiliently deformable material comprises silicone material.

It is further preferred that the second resiliently deformable material also comprises silicone material.

The first and second resiliently deformable materials may be of contrasting colours or tones.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a flexible mould for food baking in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the mould of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the mould of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is cross-sectional view of the mould of FIG. 3, taken along line IV-IV;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a reinforcement frame of the mould of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an end view of the frame of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the frame of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 8 is cross-sectional view of the frame of FIGURE 7, taken along line VIII-VIII.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a flexible mould 10 for food baking embodying the invention, which is generally known as a loaf pan and comprises a generally rectangular oblong body 100 having a horizontal base 110, a near-vertical peripheral wall 120 and a rim portion 130. The wall 120 extends around the base 110, upstanding therefrom, to define a cavity 11 having an upwardly facing opening 12 for containing food baking ingredients. The rim portion 130 includes a horizontal flange 131 which extends along an upper edge of the wall 120 around the cavity 11, outwardly from the wall 120.

The flange 131 has a pair of parallel longer sections 132 running along opposite sides of the body 100 and a pair of shorter sections 133 along opposite ends thereof. Each shorter section 133 protrudes to a relatively greater extent from the upper edge of the wall 120 than the longer sections 132 and turns at an acute angle of say 30°-40° upwards, acting as a handle 140 such that the overall mould 10 is normally held by both hands gripping the handles 140.

The mould body 100, i.e. the base 110, the wall 120 and the rim portion 130, etc., is moulded integrally from a resiliently deformable material that is essentially a silicone elastomer material. Such a silicone elastomer material is obtained by cross-linking silicone in the presence of a peroxide as a cross-linking agent. The cross-linkable silicone is preferably dimethyl-vinyl siloxane (VMQ) silicone gum with a polymerization degree of 7000-8000 and a Shore A hardness value in the range of from about 30 to 90 at about 23° C.

The mould 10 can be moulded to various different shapes and sizes for use in baking food as desired by customers. The silicone material used in the making of the mould 10 is non-toxic thermally stable over a broad temperature range such that it is safe for contact with foodstuff. The silicone material renders the mould 10 resiliently flexible and bendable such that it can easily be released from the baked food items or vice versa, and is also convenient to store or carry with.

By reason of its flexibility, the mould 10 tends to be insufficiently strong for holding food especially before the food is baked when the food ingredients are heavy and soft and in semi-liquid form; the mould 10 may become unstable particularly during movement i.e. losing shape thereby likely to lead to spilling/overflow of the liquid/pasty content for example. For this reason, the rim portion 130 of the mould 10 is fitted with an integrated reinforcement frame 150.

The frame 150 co-extends with the rim portion 130 and continuously along its entire length. It is moulded integrally with the rim portion 130 from another, though practically the same, resiliently deformable silicone material that is relatively more rigid or harder (i.e. having a larger Shore A hardness value) than the mould body material, such that the frame 150 provides a relatively more rigid support to facilitate holding of the overall mould 10 containing food/food ingredients.

The frame 150 extends along an outermost edge 134 of the flange 131. It has a generally flat cross-section which extends vertically downwardly from the flange edge 134 such that the wall 120, the rim portion 130 and the frame 150 have a combined cross-section that is hollow for enhanced strength, generally of an inverted U-shape, at least along both longer flange sections 132.

Each of the two handles 140 includes a reinforcement pad 151 which is moulded integrally with the handle 140, on and over the upper surface thereof, from the same silicone material as the frame 150. Both handle pads 151 are separate from the frame 150.

The silicone materials for making the mould body 100 and the support frame 150 and handle pads 151 have different or contrasting colours or tones.

The subject mould 10 is manufactured using a two-stage moulding operation involving insert moulding. The support frame 150 and the handle pads 151 are first moulded to shape using the relatively harder silicone material. These semi-finished pieces are then placed at the relevant positions inside a larger mould for moulding the loaf pan body 100 using the same but softer silicone material.

The invention has been given by way of example only, and various modifications of and/or alterations to the described embodiment may be made by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as specified in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A flexible mould for food baking, comprising:

a body moulded integrally from a first resiliently deformable material, having a base and a peripheral wall extending around the base and upstanding therefrom to define a cavity for containing food baking ingredients;

the body including a rim portion extending along an upper edge of the wall around the cavity;

wherein the rim portion has a reinforcement frame co-extending therewith, which is moulded integrally with the rim portion from a second resiliently deformable material that is relatively more rigid than the first resiliently deformable material, such that the frame provides a relatively more rigid support to facilitate holding of the body.

2. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 1, wherein the frame extends continuously around the rim portion.

3. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 1, wherein the rim portion comprises a flange extending outwardly from the upper edge of the wall.

4. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 3, wherein the frame extends along an outermost edge of the flange.

5. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 4, wherein the frame has a cross-section extending downwardly from the edge of the flange.

6. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wall, the rim portion and the frame have a combined cross-section that is hollow.

7. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 3, wherein the flange includes two parts on opposite sides of the body, each part extending to a relatively greater extent outwardly from the upper edge of the wall and acting as a handle.

8. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 7, wherein each handle includes a reinforcement member moulded integrally therewith from the second resiliently deformable material.

9. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 8, wherein each reinforcement member is located on an upper surface of the corresponding handle.

10. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 8, wherein both reinforcement members are separate from the reinforcement frame.

11. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first resiliently deformable material comprises silicone material.

12. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 11, wherein the second resiliently deformable material also comprises silicone material.

13. The flexible mould as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and second resiliently deformable materials are of contrasting colours or tones.