Dear ravirtue, the metal removable tray is for cooking dishes where you want the liquid to not drain away such as gravy on meats. You can use it to make stews or chili or meatloaf. It can also be used to bake with such as , yes, cakes or cinnamon rolls. It comes in quite handy. I've used it to do chicken as well when I didn't feel like having to clean the whole machine. Hope this helps you out. Enjoy your roasting machine. It makes the best tasting chicken, fried but without all the grease of doing it in the frypan. Good luck! Wackybird12