This invention relates to kitchen utensils for use with confectionery and bakery materials for cake making, such as sugarpaste and marzipan, and with pastry and other edible coatings. They could also be used with non-edible materials such as modelling clays.

The materials used to coat and decorate cakes, for example, chocolate compounds, marzipan and sugar compounds, need to be shaped and smoothed so that the product has the desired appearance. The same applies to pastry used in pie making and other pastry-coated products. Confectionery materials for cake making, pastry and other edible coatings contain one or more of: binders, emulsifiers, fats, starches, sugars and syrups, in various combinations and proportions, together with water and/or other fluid ingredients. They have a greasy and/or sticky consistency.

The implements or utensils traditionally used to shape and smooth edible coatings, such as sugarpaste, are made from injection moulded or machined plastics and the part that is intended to come into contact with the coating material is smooth and flat. This provides a large surface area for contacting the coating material and which, owing to its aforementioned greasy and/or sticky consistency, and a suction effect, often results in the coating material adhering to the implement or utensil and which results in difficulty in manoeuvring the utensil to achieve the required effect. This is obviously not helpful or desirable when the intention is to create a smooth finish, for example, to the coating of icing on a cake. A similar problem is encountered when using conventional implements or utensils to roll out and smooth pastry. For this reason, some users will apply a sprinkling of icing sugar (powder) or flour to dry the surface of the material before the conventional implement or utensil is used. This reduces the tendency of the material, for example sugarpaste, to adhere to the implement or utensil and thus assists the user in achieving the desired shaped and/or smoothed finish to the surface.

There is therefore a need for implements or utensils that avoid the aforementioned problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide such improved implements or utensils.

According to the present invention there is provided a utensil suitable for use in shaping or smoothing an edible material or a non-edible modelling material and which is characterised in that it has a micro texture on the surface, or a part of the surface, that contacts the material when the utensil is being used. The material may be, for example, an edible material of the type used to coat and decorate cakes. The presence of the micro texture has, most advantageously, been found to lessen the tendency of the material to adhere to the utensil and, in consequence, makes it considerably easier for the user to create, for example, a very smooth finish to a coating of icing on a cake and to do so more efficiently. While not wishing to be limited or bound by any particular theory, it is believed that the improved performance achieved by the utensil of this invention is due to the micro texture on its surface trapping some air between the utensil and the material on which it is being used. The entrapped air has the effect of reducing the area of contact between the utensil and the material, thereby lessening the tendency of the material to adhere to the surface of the utensil and/or avoiding or minimising the formation of a suction effect.

The micro texture is preferably undulating with convex and concave features that are rounded and flow smoothly from one to another. Sharp or acute angles should be kept to a minimum and are preferably completely absent from the micro textured surface. The micro texture on the surface of the utensil may be a regular pattern, a repeating pattern or a random pattern. Typically, and when looked at from above (in plan view), it consists of or comprises a series of rounded mounds with diameters ranging from about 0.005mm to about 0.50mm; more preferably from about 0.01 mm to about 0.25mm. The height of the mounds (or depth of the intervening spaces) is typically from about 0.0025mm to about 0.25mm; more preferably from about 0.005mm to about 0.125mm. An example of the micro texture suitable for use in this invention is shown in Figure 1 (the scale on the ruler is cm/mm).

Utensils according to this invention may be made of any suitable material; for example, a plastic of a grade that is approved for bringing into contact with food and other edible materials. They could also be made of metals, glass or other mouldable, printable, embossable, etchable or machineable material. They may be of flexible or rigid construction. The micro textured surface can be created by existing techniques that are well known and widely used to produce, for example, sheets of plastic for other uses. The micro textured surface could be sprayed on to a substrate.

Utensils according to this invention include smoothers (for use in creating a smooth finish), rolling pins or other implements suitable for use in smoothing and/or shaping confectionery materials (such as, chocolate compounds, marzipan, and other sugar compounds) and/or pastry. They can also be used for the smoothing or shaping of non-edible material, such as modelling clays. The micro textured surface may cover the whole of the utensil or one or more parts of the surface of the utensil.