Patent Application
20230225532
Prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, blowing out candles on a birthday cake was a common traditional practice. However during the pandemic blowing on food to be eaten by others became frowned upon, including blowing out candles on a cake.
A transparent plastic or glass cover for covering a cake. The top of the cover has indentations for receiving the bottom end of small candles and supporting them vertically in place. The indentations may be configured in any desired arrangement, such as concentric circles in a circular cover for covering a circular cake, or a rectangular grid in a rectangular cover for covering a rectangular cake. The cover protects the cake from dripping candle wax and also from airborne particles landing on it, such as a spray or aerosol of saliva droplets when blowing out burning candles. The cover is then removed from the cake before the cake is sliced and served. The cover prevents germs and other contaminants from landing on the cake before it is served.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate disclosed embodiments and/or aspects and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention, the scope of which is determined by the claims.
In the drawings:
It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions provided herein may have been simplified to illustrate aspects that are relevant for a clear understanding of the herein described processes and devices, while eliminating, for the purpose of clarity, other aspects that may be found in typical processes and devices. Those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art may recognize that other elements or steps may be desirable or necessary to implement the processes and devices described herein. Because such elements and steps are well known in the art, and because they do not facilitate a better understanding of the present disclosure, a discussion of such elements and steps may not be provided herein. However, the present disclosure is deemed to inherently include all such elements, variations, and modifications to the described aspects that would be known to those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
It will be readily understood that the components of the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be realized in a variety of different configurations. Thus, the following detailed description of certain exemplary embodiments, as represented in the attached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed, but is merely representative of selected illustrative embodiments of the invention. The usage of the phrases “example embodiments”, “some embodiments”, or other similar language throughout this specification refers to the fact that the feature or characteristic described may be included in at least one embodiment of the present invention, and do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment or group of embodiments.
A variety of embodiments will now be described. These embodiments are provided as teaching examples and do not limit the scope of the invention. Although specific details of the embodiments are presented, these embodiments may be modified by changing, supplementing, or eliminating many of these details.
The cake covers 10, 12 are preferably made to protect standard sized birthday cakes 15, 17 having conventional shapes, for example circular or rectangular cakes, and conventional heights, such as six inches or four inches tall. In addition, the top surfaces 20, 22 of the protective cake covers 10, 12 are also configured to serve as holders for birthday candles, such as candles that can display a number of years by using that number of individual birthday candles 25, or larger individual candles 27 in the form of numeric digits. The numeric digits of the candles 27 range from 0 to 9, as shown in
In general, the covers 10, 12 may be sized with dimensions chosen to accommodate cakes 15, 17 of a variety of standard or other sizes and shapes. The covers 10, 12 are preferably made of a transparent material that is dish washer safe, such as clear glass or plastic. Other aspects of the covers 10, 12 may be based on or determined by the size and shape of the respective cakes 15, 17 being covered.
For example, a cake cover 10 may be shaped and sized to cover a round cake 15. Common dimensions of such a cake commonly include a circular plan 14″ (inches) in diameter×7″ high, including a generous amount of icing. However, round cakes 15 may commonly have a diameter in the range of 5 inches to 25 inches, and may be cut to provide 6 to 195 slices or servings, as shown in
Embodiments of the cake covers 10, 12 may be sized accordingly to cover the iced cake plus a desired clearance so the cover does not touch the cake. The cake covers 10, 12 should comprise a transparent plastic or glass cover. The covers 10, 12 each have respective horizontal tops 11, 13 and vertical sidewalls 14, 16. The couplings between the tops 11, 13 and sidewalls 14, 16 may be permanent, as shows in
The respective top surfaces 20, 22 of the tops 11, 13 have respective indentations 30, 35 for receiving the bottom end of the small candles 25 and supporting them vertically in place. The indentations 30, 35 may be in the form of circular cylinders deep enough to firmly support candles 25 inserted into them, such as a quarter inch deep although other depths may be used without changing the scope of the claims. Moreover, the indentations 30, 35 may be configured in any desired arrangement, such as concentric circles in a circular cover 10 for covering a circular cake 15, or a rectangular shape or grid in a rectangular cover 12 for covering a rectangular cake 17. The covers 10, 12 protect the respective cakes 15, 17 from dripping wax from the candles 25, and also from airborne particles landing on the cake, such as a spray or aerosol of saliva droplets created when blowing out burning candles, or when coughing or sneezing in the vicinity of the cakes. The covers 10, 12 are then removed from the respective cakes 15, 17 before they are sliced and served. In addition to melted wax from the candles 25, the covers 10, 12 prevent germs and other contaminants from landing on the cakes 15, 17 before they are served.
In embodiments, a cover 12 for a cake 17 as described in the foregoing may include or be provided with a base plate 45 that has in its top surface 50 a shallow groove 53 or ridge 55 in the shape of the bottom of the wall(s) of the cover 12, configured to receive the bottom edge of the cover and prevent it from sliding, as shown in
Although the invention has been described and illustrated in exemplary forms with a certain degree of particularity, it is noted that the description and illustrations have been made by way of example only. Numerous changes in the details of construction, combination, and arrangement of parts and steps may be made without deviating from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, such changes are understood to be inherent in the disclosure. The invention is not limited except by the appended claims and the elements explicitly recited therein. The scope of the claims should be construed as broadly as the prior art will permit. It should also be noted that all elements of all of the claims may be combined with each other in any possible combination, even if the combinations have not been expressly claimed.
This Application is a United States Non-Provisional Patent Application and Continuation-In-Part (CIP) Patent Application that claims priority to U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 16/974,353 filed on Jul. 21, 2020, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16974353 | Jul 2020 | US |
| Child | 18118150 | US |
