 | If you’ve browsed through the photographs on myteaplanner.com<http://myteaplanner.com> and read a few of our blogs, you may have noticed that many of our cakes are on cake pedestals. For example, our November Post-Thanksgiving Tea menu lists a luscious Rum Bundt Cake “On the Pedestal.” A beautiful creation on a pedestal is both an anticipated finale and a centerpiece or focal point of the tea table. A cake is the traditional occupant of this footed plate. Close your eyes and picture a birthday cake, and most likely that festively decorated cake is resplendent on its pedestal. Any lovely, round dessert is a candidate for the pedestal. Bavarians, Charlottes, and molded gelatins feel just as at home on the pedestal as a Bundt cake or triple layer cake. |
| As our cake repertoire expanded into more complex designs, my baking partner, Suzi, and I, found we wanted to have the proper pedestal to showcase each cake at its best. Over the years, we have collected many vintage and modern pedestals in glass, ceramic, and metal. If we like a certain style, we buy it in graduated sizes, if available. We know varying heights on a tea table or buffet adds interest and drama. Stack two or three pedestals in descending sizes on top on each other and you’ve created a tiered serving piece. (We recommend temporarily affixing them to each other with small pieces of museum putty to prevent any tipping accidents. It’s available at hardware stores, in the picture framing section.) |  |
As with many collections, ours probably contains some examples that are more useful than others, some that are more versatile than others, or some that will never be useful but are just lovely in themselves. We also have pedestals with family history. A favorite of mine is Suzi's mother’s heavy cut-crystal and gold pedestal that will hold up to a twelve- inch cake and has a raised rim. Perfectly flat topped pedestals are easiest to get the cake centered and frosted, but a raised edge makes it useful for serving cookies or presenting cut-up fruit. The Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce in our Tea for Our Elders (http://www.myteaplanner.com/a-tea-for-our-elders.html) definitely needs to be presented on a rimmed pedestal to prevent the delightfully gooey Caramel Sauce from dripping onto your white linen table cloth.
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I'm also partial to three cream colored enameled cake pedestals that have a charming scalloped edge. Suzi was drawn to them as well. I bought one size in a cute little shop in Maxwell, California and she bought two sizes in a completely different shop in Pacific Grove, each without the other knowing! We have so many now, that when we’re out shopping, we’ll see a cute stand and remind ourselves that we already own it. (One recent visit to Cost Plus World Market found Suzi and I in the cake pedestal section, pointing, saying, “Own it, own it, have it, yes, got that one.”) We may have enough cake pedestals by now, but there's always just one more we might need…
| Here are a few special cakes and desserts that we highly recommend to showcase on your cake pedestal:
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If you are thinking of adding a cake pedestal to your collection of Afternoon Tea equipment, take a look at the Tea Utensils and Accessories section of our website where we include a special section on Cake Pedestals: http://www.myteaplanner.com/cake-pedestal.html
It's March and we haven't forgotten St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th. We have a whole tea party menu at http://www.myteaplanner.com/march-a-st-patrickrsquos-day-irish-tea.html. Our menu contains our family recipe for Margaret Murdock’s Irish Soda Bread which is a must-have for the Irish or Irish-at-heart hostess.
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