Sunday 22 May 2011

Don't judge a tin by its, erm, lid?

Hello, and welcome to my 50th post! [Yes, I know it took me a while. That's me]. It also seems like a while since I've found a decent bargain in a charity shop, and I nearly missed this not particularly attractive biscuit tin on the shelf. I'm glad I didn't though, as it was full to the brim with cookie cutters and all sorts of cake decorating paraphernalia.


I seem to be developing a large collection of cookie cutters, and this tin enabled me to add to my gingerbread man army, including a teeny-weeny Mr and Mrs pair only a few centimetres high. I can also now make gingerbread pigs, should I so desire. [I do, obviously]. I think the tong-y things are for crimping icing. It makes me happy to know that if any icing ever needs crimping, I'm all set.


There was also a mini heart shaped cake tin, and over twenty icing nozzles of different sizes, some of which appeared to be really old.




I know that these plastic things are icing cutters for making leaves and flowers, and that the dangerously large thumb tack is called an icing pin, but I have no idea how you'd go about using it. I'm also clueless about the metal hoop, and the yellow tools which look suspiciously like medical instruments, possibly for ear-wax removal. Any domestic goddesses of the cake persuasion who can shed some light? Perhaps I should actually read the 1981 copy of Cake Icing and Decorating by Carole Handslip which I picked up for 75p a few months before. I do wonder if the tin was later donated by the same disillusioned baker...

                          

The contents of the whole tin was £1.50, and having looked on a couple of sugarcraft websites, I've discovered that just a single icing nozzle can cost up to £2.50. There were 22 in there, plus 10 cookie cutters and all the other bits and pieces. So I'm declaring it a bargain!

 I'd also like to say hello to all my new followers - hurrah to reaching 200 - and thanks again to everyone who follows and especially those who comment, I really appreciate it and am amazed the blog has got this far in 4 months. I'm constantly inspired by so many of your blogs - and I've been challenged to do an outfit post. We'll see!* And I can't wait for the great charity shop swap.

Finally, if you follow - you've got a great chance of winning one of my giveaways. Do enter my Plum and Ivory giveway if you're in the UK, and the Trashion Magazine competition is open worldwide.

Lakota x

* Did I sound jauntily nonchalant there? I'm terrified.

Linking up to Flea Market Finds

61 comments:

  1. Wow, that certainly is a bargain! Well done on your 50th post and reaching 200 followers :) x

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  2. What a haul of goddies! Looking forward to seeing your wonderful iced creations ;)!!
    Liz

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  3. A fantastic bargain indeedy. I love the look of the icing nozzles displayed in the heart shaped tin! xx

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  4. wohooo!! what a bargain you got, who would have thought the tin contains such treasures, 22 nozzles and 10 cutters all in one! hahaha im not a baker nor i know alot of cake making instruments so if some are suspiciously looking like medical instruments, just sterilize them before using hahahaha, congrats on 200 followers, Lakota! now i'm gonna check inside tins when i see one in charity shops! xx Susan

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  5. What a great find for such a small price and could those yellow things be for shaping flower petals and leaves for decorating cakes?

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  6. Super Duper bargain! Cake decorating thingies are expensive usually and cookie cutters can be. I agree with Nelly on the yellow thingies being for shaping leaves and petals perhaps.

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  7. Congrats re your blog, its a pleasure to follow :0)
    TOP find! Those nozzles look really gorgeous in the heart shaped tin, totally fit for a nigella book photo shoot! Wondering if the spike thing rotates? Maybe you stick your cake on it to turn it with ease to ice circular decorations around the edge???

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  8. Now that is a great find, especially when you work out how much a single cutter is. By the way, do you think that the big thumb tack thingummyjig could be a strengthener for putting a cake on top of another? Just a thought.

    P.S. Am soooo looking forward to the swap - I've linked in the swap piccy on my blog.

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  9. Wow I'm super jealous of your find! Absolutely fantastic! Especially all the nozzles!

    I'm not sure about the ring, but the yellow tools are for shaping royal icing into flowers and other shapes! A got cake decorating book will show you how! The big tack is for making icing roses around!

    Jewel x

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  10. a good* cake decorating book - lol x

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  11. What a fabulous find!! :D

    Jo x

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  12. What a fabulous find - lucky you!

    Helenxx

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  13. gosh lucky you. what a wonderful surprise to discover all those goodies inside.

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  14. that is an amazing buy. cookies for all! x

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  15. That is an amazing find for sure. I have all my cutters and nozzles in a cardboard box. Shame on me...! xx

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  16. What a treasure trove - those icing nozzles are intriguing - I hope you'll show us what you make with them :) And I'm looking forward to your outfit post xxx

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  17. Total bargain! Now you know we are all expecting cookies! Scarlett x

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  18. woo hoo - the family and friends will be expecting some seriously fancy bickies now! A bargain indeed!

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  19. You're a legend Lakota.

    So I suppose it won't be too long before we start seeing your cakey creations (I'm expecting a perfect replica of that wedding cake in the fifth photo btw)on your blog eh?

    I keep forgetting to add pretty swap button to my blog...will do tomorrow x

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  20. Wow bet those nozzles make some interesting shapes. Those mini cutters are so cute. Also congrats on reaching 202 followers!

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  21. what a great find Lakota, I would be so excited to find all of that in one tin.

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  22. Lakota, this was an absolute bargain!! Cookie cutters can be so pricey and you've scooped a winner win a tin crammed full! :-)

    Jem xXx

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  23. wow what a fantastic bargain!!!

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  24. That is a bargain and a half, Lakota. Haven't a clue about nozzles and the like, myself, as baking is definitely not my forte.

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  25. wow!! 50 posts and 200+ followers is amazing!

    Great score with the cake decorating pieces, I used to enjoy doing that as a child with my mom. As for the thumbtack/ pin I think it is used to make flowers. You turn it upside down and the pin part allows you to spin it while you make the flower. When you finish the flower you can scoop it off and put in wherever you want on the cake. At least that's how I used it eons ago!

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  26. A bargain indeed. Just shows you shouldn’t be afraid to prise off the lids of tins and boxes as you never know what treasures are lurking within. Congratulations on the blog too.

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  27. great score! Love those cookie cutters!

    Smiles,
    The Joyful Thriftetr

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  28. Amazing find!!! Especially like seeing them strewn across the Nigella Cut-Out cookies recipe!

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  29. What a great haul you found!!!

    Victoria xx

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  30. What a great little haul! Can't wait to see an outfit post. xxx

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  31. I am totally jealous, what an amazing find. I too am a cookie cutter fiend and keep meaning to blog about it but I have so many sorted into boxes by type that I'd need a whole day to photograph them and put a post together, I will get round to it soon! x

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  32. You have indeed come a long way in 4 months, well done. I am very glad I found your blog, it is high in my top 5 favourite list.
    I'll do an outfit post if you do. I bought no less than 10 items of clothing yesterday at the 'everything £1 til 3 o'clock' event.

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  33. Oh look at all that baking treasure! Be still my beating heart. Wonderful stuff. :)

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  34. What a bargain! At christmas I wanted to buy a nest of stars and they were over 20 bucks! I have had a cake decorating obsession since I was a kid and my sister and I would look through my mums vintage recipe books. I love a metal nozzle! Aren't they Beautiful!

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  35. oh my, lovey! i LOVE how you put those nuzzles inside the hearts tin, it makes such an interesting image... postcard material...!
    i'm thrilled for ya you can now squeeze out gingerbread pigglets, what a relief!
    there. all that to say i'm positively envious of your tin and its contents... ;)))
    happy baking now, you're gonna have to show us of your efforts.
    n♥
    oh, and happy, happy for turning 50. ahem.

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  36. Amazing bargain!

    I found a Tala icing set in my auction box. It was encrusted with icing but a quick wizz through the dishwasher and it's gleaming (also looking alarmingly medical!).

    Love the idea of gingerbread piggies :0)

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  37. You got all that for £1.50 ???? Brilliant find.

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  38. WOW! What an exciting find! I bet you are chuffed to bits! x

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  39. What a great find - isn't it soooooo exciting when you come across a bargain like that? My local charity shop has huge prices on stuff, so I've stopped going there :( .
    Thanks for finding me - cos now I've found you - I'm looking forward to reading more later this morning with a nice big cup of coffee (could really do with a gingerbread pig to go with it though - know where I could get one?)
    Gorgeous x

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  40. Fab bargain! The cutters look hardly used. You will have to post pics of all the wonderful creations you will produce now :)

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  41. Wonderful assortment of cookie cutters. I'm a big fan! I also love how you laid them out on the cookbook. It makes their shape so much more apparent. I'll have to remember that little trick. Thanks for sharing!

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  42. Don't you wonder how many people passed that up?
    What a fortunate find!
    Lately I have become fascinated with the tiniest and the largest cutters.

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  43. I have been really busy scrutanizing the bits and bobs! I am looking forward to seeing a fully decorated wedding cake by next week! lol! xx

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  44. Love it! I only seem to find plastic cutters at the moment, although I do have a fantastic collection of those so I can't complain. Unfortunately the small one always manages to claim them for her playdough.

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  45. Ring mystery solved. In the dim and very distant past, as an eager new wife who hankered after being a domestic goddess (it never happened)I sent away for an icing set which arrived with a turntable and several metal rings of varying sizes. I think you were supposed to lay them onto a plain iced cake and use them to mark out perfect circles which you then iced around, or between, with the nozzle of your choice. Needless to say this never happened either and they are probably still at the back of a cupboard.

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  46. Way to go girl ! Your blog is an inspiration. I will have to look closely for tips as to how to get readership and comments up !
    What total bargains you got this week, I would have gone into melt down if I had come across these. I don't bake, infact I don't even cook (much) but that wouldn't stop me . xx

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  47. Oh wow what a haul, bet you're glad you never passed that tin by :)) x

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  48. what a find! my children would want to bake and ice cookies every day :)

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  49. Very envious of your kitchen finds. Baking accessories are a major weakness for me, so I'm glad to live vicariously through you! :)

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  50. Love the sound of gingerbread pigs!
    Congratulations on your 50th post, and your 200+ followers, and thanks for your lovely comments on my blog, and for being my first follower.

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  51. Well done on getting 200 followers.
    I love cookie cutters though i hardly ever use mine lol i just keep adding to the box for some reason.
    X

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  52. Total bargain. Goes to show you doesn't it...what lovely things people must pass by.
    Well done on reaching...and passing 200 followers.xxx

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  53. Congrats on your 50th post, can't believe your bargin tin!

    Bee happy x
    Have a delicious day!

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  54. WOW! So what was it that made you lift the unattractive looking biscuit tin down from the shelf? I am intrigued!
    That's amazing, 200 followers in 4 months!!!!!??? I have been blogging for 6 years and I have 7 -heeee heee!!!

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  55. Wow. What a fabulous haul. I have a bit of a thing for cookie cutters {a girl can never have too many} and what's not to love with nozzles and crimpers!!?

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  56. PS. I know I've only been here five minutes but if you change your comment settings your readers can leave multiple comments without having to refresh the page and go to a new post. Go to Dashboard - Settings - Comments - change to Pop Up Window xx

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