New Things...New Storage!

If you visit Bake Lore often, you know that I'm a sucker for a pretty serving dish.  I have a growing collection of cake pedestals, tea trays and pretty platters. 

I was thrilled this year when I opened a beautiful tea service from Pampered Chef, a gift from my Aunt Teresa (who is by the way an amazing gift-giver and all around very thoughtful and loving kind of aunt). 

Sadly I'm running out of shelf space for all these gorgeous items. 

I had to do some rearranging and repurposing, but I found a solution: how to store my new three-tiered pedestal while also serving a much needed purpose in my kitchen. 

So I give you, the most elegant potato, onion, garlic storage ever!

Of course it will easily wash up and do what it's really intended to do...provide a frame for something delicious and decorated...and also dainty, because big treats would just not fit!
I love this stand even more now that it is uber functional.  Again, anything that is extremely useful is going to be one of my favorite things.  Eggs...black pants...ok, black anything...white vinegar...but I digress!

I love my new toy, and I hope you are enjoying your gifts and thinking up ways they will make your life just a teensy bit better. 

Thanks, Aunt Teresa!

How to Frame a Cake

When I was a girl, I had a great love for porceline dolls.  After the acquisition of three or four of those glassy-eyed figures, I came to a common conclusion:  fake dolls are creepy. 

Since then, I've not been one for collecting.  But at this point in my life, I have a great love of beautiful cake pedestals, platters and stands.  I love them, and I love shopping for them.  I find them online, at antique stores and even, *gasp* at Walmart. 

Like framing a painting, a pedestal finishes a beautiful cake. These are a few of my favorites.

I have started offering these treasures as rentals for smaller cakes.  Perhaps as my collection grows and becomes more diverse, I'll offer them for the big, fat wedding cakes too. 

Luckily, cake pedestals don't stare back at you.  They have no eyes that follow you as you move about the room.  They stack well and stay conveneiently out of sight, out of mind until they are needed.  At last, a collection worth keeping.