AN IDEAL COMPANION
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We often feel so sorry for the teaspoon, it has to come out all alone, and more often than not is plunged into hot liquids. So we decided to pair it out of compassion with our pastry fork… Two is company after all.
A pastry fork is a rather strange but indispensable item for the cake lover. If you have ever tried to eat a piece of cake, plate in one hand while trying to slice into a tarte, cream-puff, eclair or mille-feuille, you will know what a disaster of a mess of mush occurs. (Photo credit: Cafe Palladio, Jaipur)
You simply can’t cut with a normal fork.
If you are lucky you won’t break the plate and end up with a pile of creamy goo in your lap.
A pastry fork is cool and indispensable.
It has 3 tines- in plain English a prong- not 4 like the communal garden fork, and they are spaced slightly more apart.
The last tine is extra wide and sharp enough to cut through the cake, tarte or mille-feuille of choice, to avoid acrobatic pastry disasters occurring while holding the plate in one hand, and cutting with the other at casually informal buffet gatherings and tea parties
For those more formal occasions – for example when Great Aunt Maude comes over- and the topic of conversation veers towards potted plants and the weather…
… the pastry fork pairs so well with the tea spoon, which holds the tricksy piece of cake in place while the pastry fork elegantly cuts through the creamy filling
and thereby avoids a splattering out and general etiquette disaster
They make an excellent topic when conversation has come to a grinding halt.
Those awkward pauses need be awkward no longer as the hostess regails her guests with witty discourse on the history of the pastry fork, its wonders and beauty, not to mention of course its compatibility with the now not so lonely teaspoon.