As some of you may know, we are downsizing. I've spent the last three days doing the excruciating work of sorting through stuff and deciding what to keep and what to pitch. Yesterday, I opened a box marked "kitchen stuff" that had not once been opened after the last three residential moves. In it, were these two Tupperware cake carriers. One is for larger cakes and one is for smaller cakes.
I have not baked a cake in decades, let alone felt the requirement to transport one. Now that I am retired, I think I might bake a cake someday soon, and I might have to bring it somewhere.
The many pros and cons of this moment have paralyzed me:
a) I have managed to live without them for decades.
b) Do not get rid of something just when you might need it anew. Isn't that why it was kept?
c) They are bulky.
d) Unlike lasagna pans, you don't find disposable cake carriers in the supermarket aisles.
e) Cake is bad for me and for those to whom I might bring it.
f) I love cakes. I love baking them. I love sharing them.
g) The unprotected portage of a cake in my Smartcar could be disastrous for the little car and for the few articles of clothing that I have not donated.
h) The little one does fit inside the big one for better storage.
i) They smell a little musty but a session in the dishwasher ought to fix that.
In a world full of trivial grabs for attention, here at last is an issue that could impact all of you. I need your guidance in the making of a decision that will definitely shape the activities of the rest of my life, and maybe yours in a "trickle-down-let-them eat-cake sort of way. Without the carriers, I won't bring a cake anywhere. If I can't bring it, I probably won't make it. If I don't make it, I won't buy the ingredients, hence recession and hunger.
Dear readers, I need your help with a decision that will impact my future, the lives of all of you, my friends who might someday be on the receiving end of cake or not, and the national economy itself, in a very real way.
Should I keep them or pitch them?
Please cast your vote and feel free to add your supporting argument.
37 comments:
Why don't you act like a major collector of art and give them on permanent loan to somebody who makes lotsa cakes, with a provision that they become a donation upon your demise.
As a fee, you could negotiate a cake a quarter. Even your delicate frame should be able to handle that.
oh keep both, they are impossible to find decent cake carriers today.
Keep.
You're going to need every last possession when, in a week or so, our entire economy collapses and we revert back to the barter system. (Heck, I'll give you a chicken for the both of them.) These could have any number of uses after the coming economic apocalypse. For example, if you turn them upside down, they'd make excellent gruel and/or porridge carriers. They may also be a good places to keep live leeches (for ridding the body of any number of evil humors.)
I have the feeling that you already know the fate of those containers, but since you are asking here's my advice: Pitch them please! Anything you have not used in more than a year will probably not get used again. Well, not exactly everything. Anyway, you can probably buy collapsible cardboard boxes for transporting cake if you decided to bake once more.
We've been downsizing, too. So, we made a rule. If you have to ask, get rid of it.
'Let them eat cake' ....
and if to do that you need containers, big and small ... keep them.
Also, that retro Harvest Gold is back in vogue. I used to have the set of canisters that matched those.
Did you know there's a whole section devoted to vintage tupperware on eBay?
Jo
Get rid of them. They look old and used and if you showed up with a cake in one of those at my house..it would scare me...but I would eat it.
i say keep them.. or toss them and buy a new one when you need it.. rubbermade makes a good one. or... make this cake.. which is evidently the holy-grail of pineapple upsidedown cake recipes.. make it and then bring it to me :-)
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000231pineapple_upside_down_cake.php
How much can you love baking cakes if you haven't baked one in decades? Pitch them, and find something else to bake and share, preferably something that can be transported in a ziplock bag.
Keep them! I just my chocolate cake recipe to your email. If you like chocolate, it is the best recipe you will find.
Keep. It's true, as Joe Bearnickel said, it is very hard to find good cake carriers these days. You may chose to keep only one, but that begets the question of which one. I can't help you there. I have one of these babies, and when turned upside down it makes a very large bowl for storing or serving something that needs a very large bowl. Mine is, however, too small to carry a pie. The pie pans need a larger diameter than mine can hold. Does this bigger one hold a pie pan? Pies tend to be easier to make than cakes, too. Just a thought.
Keep one, and make it a point to use it.
Keep them as a prophylactic against ever needing them. By which I mean, the day after you get rid of them, you will find a need for them. On the other hand if you keep them, you will probably never use them. If you never use them cake will never be perpetrated and you will not have to worry about all those tempting and delicious calories. Problem solved.
Dear Kerry,
Good God, I could never live with the consequences. Have ya never seen Sophie's Choice?
PITCH.
If you haven't looked at them through THREE residential moves, then they'll likely end up gathering even more dust...
My rule is, if you haven't looked at it in 2 - 3 years (depending on the type of item), then you simply don't need it, and will likely never use it.
Take the litte girl!
You are retired? Actually this "dilemma" sounds somwhat typical of friends of ours who have also "retired"...For heaven's sake, Padre, just make a decision!!
Keep them.
My mom finds that if she takes off the strap and turns the cake carrier over, the cover serves as a nice, deep container into which she puts things like party mix and other finger-food munchies. It makes it easy to transport to parties, as well as a nice way to keep munchies fresh at home.
I just read Alan's comment, and agree with his suggestion regarding the gruel. And when our Chinese overlords come to cash in on the debt they're about to buy, we'll need every little trinket we can sell.
Toss 'em. Bake TedBear's chocolate cake with chocolate icing and invite me over. You may have other guests too if you wish.
I say keep the larger one. Baking is a wonderful new hobby to pick up. You will always have something to bring to a dinner party... and cakes are delightful... AND if you make a smakker cake, it will STILL fit in the larger one.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks for brightening up my somber day! Honestly, if you haven't baked a cake in forever and chances are you'll probably just order one anyway like the rest of us and it will come in it's own purdy box...give them to someone who will use them and probably bake you a cake as a loving (and fattening) gesture of their appreciation. I do hope you're going to do a website thingy listing all the goodies that you'll be selling, esp furniture and art.
Keep them and start baking cakes. Bring a smile to someone's face with a fresh,homemade cake.
Keep the little, pitch the big. That way when you make a cake, it won't be that big so the bad for you factor will be less. And the amount of storage needed will be less than keeping both or the big one. Then you can also make it a point to get back to doing something you love - making cakes. A reasonable compromise, I think. And it is hard to find those things these days.
feck!..I haven't had this much pressure to answer a question correctly since I voted for Kerry ...
keep em both..I swear the minute I give something away or throw it away...I need it...it's a rule of science..keep both..can always use them as hat boxes.
Heave-ho! If you didn't use them yesterday, you're never going to use them.
Besides, that kind of plastic has probably been found to be toxic.
And what's with this "retired" business? You're busier than ever, and having much too much fun to be baking.
(Here, have one of my madeleines, you know, the ones that require special tins.)
Gray and Gravity keep fighting their way in, Tony.
Me, I want my life to feel lighter.
When's the next time they might leave if you keep them now?
(The hat-box gig is a *great* save, however.)
Tough call. As soon as you pitch them, the need for them will surely be required. If you don't, I suspect more decades will pass with them remaining untouched. I guess what I'm saying is that you're fucked either way.
Good luck sir!
Get rid of them,
Bake cake when you entertain, Make something easier to transport when being entertained.
What did people do before cake carriers, Tupperware?
My grandmother used to say " If you aren't using it you are stealing if from someone who can use it" made more sense in spanish I guess.
Lets see- a gay man, two vintage Tupperware cake carriers of appropriately varied size...
I'm no fan of clutter either but they seem a necessity to me.
In a blog filled with erudite posts about love, sex, the church, friends, art, and much more, what gets the most hits? Tupperware. And I appreciate the irony that I have contributed to it.
Send them to Homer in Tucson. He is ALWAYS making cakes, and they dry out in the arid desert (don't tell him I said that). If anyone needs adorable Tupperware cake containers, it's Homer.
KEEP KEEP KEEP
Nothing from the Kitchen should ever be tossed until it has worn itself into uselessness, or until you are useless in the kitchen. I am highly prejudiced in this regard, though I am always in "pitch it" mode with every other area of my home. I hate junk, but love all kitchen gear.
Keep. Small one to your Florida digs - larger one in NYC? Melba (our goddess of the office) made me a homemade pound cake for my recent birthday. Lovely.
Tony:
If you're this tormented keep them. But keep them creatively. Opposed to having them as mere "cake carriers" make them more than that!
You can use them as a stand for a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Or maybe a cute inventive spice rack. I know you are creative - create a piece of flair out of it!
I will tell you this though: On an episode of WifeSwap on which I found myself working the character of "anal mother who organizes everything" taught her kids to keep or discard items based on the motto of:
"Do you need it? Can you live without it? Is it making you money?"
So do what you will but I vote for the flair!
FT, Get a job.........Oh! You did.
dude. you haven't used or even LOOKED at them in 10 years. It was time to goodwill them 9 years ago.
*snicker*
What Birdie said, including the word "erudite"
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