Tilted cake container system
A food container having a base (12) with a support surface (40) that supports a cardboard plate with a tall cake thereon, and a tall lid (14) that closes and opens over the base. The base has a rear end (22) with a vertical slot (50) and the lid has a rear end with a pivot connector that can be inserted down into the slot when the lid is in the pivoted-up position but that resists removal in the pivoted-down position. The base rear end that forms the slot lies on a raised platform (104) of the base that raises the slot above the level of the base front end (20), by at least ⅓rd the lid height, to cause the lid to move almost vertically as it clears the top front of the cake. The base support surface faces at a forward-upward incline angle to better display the cake through the transparent lid.
Food such as a tall cake, is often packaged in a container formed of deformed plastic sheeting that forms a base and a transparent lid. The cake generally lies on a cardboard cake board that is, in turn, supported on a support surface of the base. In prior containers, the consumer removed the lid by carefully moving the lid upward, with care taken to not turn the lid or shift it horizontally. Any such unwanted movement might cause the lid to smear the delicately applied cake frosting. After the lid was removed, it was set down on another surface so a person would be free to cut the cake. A low cost container that pivotally supported the lid on the base until the lid had been pivoted up, and then allowed the lid to be removed, would be of value. The lid should be supported so it does not contact the tall cake during upward pivoting of the lid.
When a cake is displayed in a store, it would be desirable if the cake were held so its top, which might hold the most attractive frosting design, could be more easily seen by a customer. Such cake holding to allow viewing the cake top, would be desirable even when containers holding cakes were stacked.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a food container is provided that facilitates opening a tall lid without brushing it against frosting on a tall cake that is supported on a base, and that better displays the top of the cake in a store. The base has a rear end with a laterally-extending slot, and the lid has a lid pivot connector that pivots in the slot. When the lid is first opened from a fully closed position it is pivotally supported on the base so its position can be closely controlled and it will not brush against the cake frosting. However, when the lid has been pivoted up by an angle that is at least 15°, it can be removed from the base by simply lifting up the lid. This is accomplished by forming the rear wall of the base slot with a base forward projection and forming the lid pivot connector with a latch that lies under the forward projection only when the lid is closed or at a small pivot angle from the closed position.
The rear of the base is raised so the lid pivot axis lies at a level that is considerably above the level of the front of the lid and base. As a result, as the lid is pivoted up from a fully closed position, the lower front edge of the lid first moves forward, away from the cake and remains spaced from the cake until the lower front edge of the lid clears the front-top of the cake.
The base support surface is angled from the horizontal so any cake supported on it faces at a forward-upward incline. This enables customers to better see the top of the cake. The base support surface is angled from the base bottom that rests on a horizontal surface. When containers are stacked, short stacking projections that project down from the tilted base support surface of an upper container, lie on the tilted top of the lid of a lower container. This maintains a constant tilt of cakes in all stacked containers.
The rim of the base lies below the base support surface level along a majority of the opposite sides and front of the container to facilitate picking up a cake slice. The rear of the base has pockets on its rear surface, for holding a spatula for cutting and serving the cake, and for holding cake decorations such as candles and frosting.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The base has a base support surface 40 that is interrupted by numerous depressions 42 that add strength to the base. The base has a groove 44 that extends around the entire periphery of the base, and the lid has a tab 46 at its periphery that fits into the groove and forms a seal for freshness.
In common prior art containers that hold a cake, the lid is removed by initially pulling it directly up until a lid tab suddenly releases from a base groove, and by further lifting the lid until it is clear of the cake. Often, there is only a small clearance around the cake. When the lid is first pulled up and it suddenly releases from the base, the lid may move horizontally, press against the cake frosting and damage the frosting. The person holding the tall lid then tries to move the lid up further without turning it or moving it horizontally so it does not further damage the frosting, all of which is difficult to do. When the lid lies above the cake, the person lays the lid on another surface and proceeds to cut the cake.
Applicant avoids unwanted lid movement during lid lifting by pivotally connecting the rear end of the lid to the base and preventing lid removal, only while the lid is moved up only slightly above much of the cake (e.g. when the lid has pivoted less than 15° or 30° from the closed position), and by then (after the lid has pivoted by at least 15° to at least 30°) completely releasing the lid from the base.
When the lid 14 has pivoted clockwise by an angle B of approximately 45° (15° to 90°) it reaches the position 14A shown in phantom lines in
A cake is usually placed on a cake board of greater width and length than the cake, and the cake board is placed in a container by lowering it onto the base support surface. It is desirable to fix the front-to-rear and lateral position of the cake board on the base.
Applicant notes that the lid 250 has a tapered height, with the front end of greater height than the rear end. The taper can be sufficient that the top surface of the lid is horizontal, or the taper can be less than required to hold the top surface horizontal.
Thus, the invention provides a food container, especially for a cake, which can facilitate viewing the top surface of a cake even when stacking such containers, which facilitates the opening of the lid without having the lid inadvertently brush against the cake frosting, which facilitates the serving of slices of the cake, and which provides implements for cutting, serving and decorating the cake. The container has a base support surface that can be oriented to face at a forward-upward incline, and a stack of such containers lie on selected surfaces of one another to keep the same incline for each container of a stack. The rear of the lid is pivotally mounted on the rear of the base by the use of a lid connector that fits into a base slot at the base rear. The walls of the base rear slot include a projection on the rear base slot wall that allows lid pivoting up but resists lift-up of the lid until the lid has pivoted up by at least about 15° from the closed position. The base has a raised platform at its rear that locates the lid pivot axis considerably above the level of the lid front, to assure that the front-bottom of the lid does not brush against the top-front of a cake. A combined cake knife and spatula are mounted in a laterally long pocket on the rear of the lid against the back of the raised platform, and a laterally short pocket (s) can be provided to hold cake decorations at the rear of the base. Although the container is especially useful for holding a tall cake, it can be used to hold other food. While the drawings show a rectangular container for holding a rectangular (as seen in a plan view) cake, the invention can be applied to containers of other shapes such as (as seen in a plan view) round, oval, or heart-shaped.
Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated herein, it is recognized that modifications and variations may readily occur to those skilled in the art, and consequently, it is intended that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents.
Claims
1. A food container of deformed plastic sheeting that includes a base and lid that each has a front end, a rear end, and laterally opposite sides, including:
- means for pivotally supporting said lid rear end on said base rear end and preventing lift-up of the lid rear end as the lid is initially pivoted open from a closed position toward an open position by the lid front end moving upward and rearward, and for releasing said lid to be lifted off the base when the lid has been pivoted up by an angle which is at least 150 from said closed position.
2. The container described in claim 1 wherein:
- said base rear end has a slot with front and rear primarily vertical base slot walls, with said rear slot wall having a rear slot wall forward projection, and said lid rear end has a lid pivot connector with a front wall lying behind and adjacent to said base front slot wall, and with a lid connection lying under said rear slot wall forward projection when the lid is closed but not lying under the projection when the lid has been pivot up by 90° from said closed position.
3. The food container described in claim 1 wherein said lid is transparent, said base has a base bottom with bottom support locations constructed to rest on a shelf flat surface, and said base has a primarily upwardly-facing base support surface (40), wherein:
- said base is formed of a single sheet of said plastic sheeting, which forms opposite support surface sides (145) that are of progressively greater height at progressively more rearward locations therealong, and that hold said base support surface (40) so it faces at an upward-forward incline of a plurality of degrees from the vertical when said base bottom support locations lie on a shelf flat surface that is horizontal.
4. The food container described in claim 1 wherein said base has a primarily upwardly-facing base support surface, and when said base lies on a flat horizontal surface a part of said lid has a top that lies at a lid top height that is a plurality of inches above the level of said base support surface, and wherein:
- said lid rear end is pivotally connected to said base rear end about a pivot axis that lies above a front end of said support surface which is at least one-third said lid top height.
5. The food container described in claim 1 wherein said base has a base support surface that can support a flat plate that has a plate length greater than half the length of said base between said base front and rear ends and a plate width that is more than half the width of the plate between said base opposite sides and wherein:
- said base has a rim that extends around said base support surface and that lies below the level of said base support surface along a majority of said base front and said base opposite sides.
6. A food container of deformed plastic sheeting which has a base with a front, rear, laterally opposite sides, a primarily upwardly facing base support surface, and front and rear base support surface ends, said base being formed of a single piece of plastic sheeting and having a base bottom for resting on a flat horizontal surface with said base sides supporting opposite sides of said base support surface, said container having a transparent lid that covers said base, wherein:
- said base sides each has a progressively greater height at progressively more rearward locations along the side, and holds said base support surface (40) at a rearward-upward incline of a plurality of degrees relative to said flat surface on which said bottom rests, to thereby better display the contents of the container.
7. The container described in claim 6, wherein:
- said lid has a transparent top surface which lies directly over a majority of said base support surface and which lies in a plane that is parallel to said base support surface.
8. The container described in claim 7, wherein:
- said lid has a lid front, lid rear, and laterally opposite lid sides, that are all horizontally shorter than said front, rear and sides of said base, so when said container and another identical container are stacked on one another the lid of the lower container lies within the boundaries of the base of the next higher container;
- each base has downwardly-projecting stacking projections with lower surfaces that lie on an imaginary plane that is parallel to the base support surface of the same container and that rest on the top surface of the next lower container, but with said imaginary plane angle to said base bottom that can rest on a flat horizontal surface, whereby all containers in a stack have parallel base support surfaces.
9. The container described in claim 6, wherein:
- said base rear has a raised rear platform with an upwardly-opening rear slot, and said lid has a rear end bottom forming a pivot connector that lies in said rear slot and that is pivotally connected to an upper end of said platform;
- said base front and a majority of said base sides, have a height less than half the height of said projection, said slot of said base sides merging with said slot of said base front;
- said base sides have rear transition portions that form laterally opposite sides of front ends of said platform and that each extends at an angle of at least 300 to said horizontal support surface, each transition portion having a slot that merges with one of said slots of said base sides and with said rear slot;
- said lid having a lower end that extends along all of said slots.
10. The container described in claim 6, wherein:
- said base has a rim that extends around said base support surface, said rim having a rim top which is below said base support surface along a majority of each side of said base, whereby to facilitate access to said base support surface for the removal of a piece of food thereon.
11. A food container of deformed plastic sheeting which has a base with a front, rear, laterally opposite sides, a primarily upwardly facing base support surface, and a horizontal base bottom for resting on a flat horizontal surface, said container having a lid that is connected to said base to pivot between open and closed positions thereon, wherein:
- said base rear has a laterally-extending base rear slot with front and rear slot walls and a primarily horizontal bottom slot wall;
- said lid has a rear end with a lower end that has a pivot connector that lies in said base slot, said pivot connector having front, bottom, and rear connector parts;
- when said lid is in said closed position, said connector front part lies facewise adjacent to said front slot wall and said connector bottom part lies facewise adjacent to said bottom slot wall, and an outer part that connects to said middle part;
- said rear connector part extends at a rearward-upward incline to the horizontal from a rear of said connector bottom part and has a free rear end;
- said rear slot wall has a forward projection formed therein that has an inclined lower projection surface lying in said slot that extends at a forward-upward incline, and said free end of said rear connector part lies below a lower end of said inclined lower projection surface;
- said free end lying under said lower projection resists said outer part free end and said pivot connection portion from lifting so said lower projection resists lift-up of said connector part out of said slot in said lid closed position, but said free end does not lie vertically under with said forward projection when the lid has been pivoted 90° from said closed position so the lid pivot connector portion then can be lifted out of said base rear slot.
12. A food container of deformed plastic sheeting which has a base with a front, rear, laterally opposite sides, a primarily upwardly facing support surface having front and rear support surface ends, and a bottom forming a horizontal support surface for resting on a flat horizontal surface, said container having a lid that has at least a tall lid portion that lies at least 1.5 inches (38 mm) above said base support surface and that covers said base, wherein:
- said rear of said base has a raised rear projection, and said lid has a rear end that is pivotally connected to said projection about a pivot axis that lies at least 13 mm above the level of said front end of said support surface, whereby the lid front end initially moves forward when the lid is raised from a closed position.
13. A food container of formed plastic sheeting which has a base with a front, rear, laterally opposite sides, a primarily upwardly facing base support surface, and front and rear base support surface ends, said base having a base bottom for resting on a flat horizontal surface, said container having a lid that covers said base, wherein:
- said base has a rim with a rim slot that extends around said base support surface and said lid has connector walls that lie in said slot when the lid is closed, said rim having a front end with a rim top which lies at a level no higher than said base support surface, to facilitate access to said base support surface through the rim front end.
14. The food container described in clam 13 wherein:
- said rim of said base has opposite sides that each extends at an upward-rearward incline.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 17, 2007
Publication Date: Jan 22, 2009
Inventor: Terry Vovan (Upland, CA)
Application Number: 11/879,296
International Classification: A47G 19/00 (20060101); B65D 6/28 (20060101); B65D 41/02 (20060101); B65D 45/00 (20060101);