It “breaks” cakes into even slices, leaving the topping intact and eliminating those pesky crumbs. It was designed especially for soft cakes, such as angel food or sponge cakes.
The cake breaker was first made in the 1930s by the C.J. Schneider Manufacturing Co. of Toledo, OH. Inventor Cale J. Schneider patented his first “food breaker” in 1932 – which appears to be the cake breaker with a different handle than the one at auction. He came back with a patent to perfect it in 1952 (with a handle that resembles the auction utensil).
Schneider’s breakers were made with Bakelite handles, but companies that bought the prongs in some cases attached silver or silver-plated handles to them.
Cake-flour companies apparently purchased the cutters from Schneider and offered them to customers. I came across a 1934 advertisement from Pillsbury offering it for sale at 25 cents with the purchase of its Sno-Sheen cake flour. The regular price for the utensil was $1.
When Schneider died in 1971, the New York Times noted in an obituary that he had invented a cake breaker that was “currently in use as a comb for African American coiffures.” In the early 1970s, the first afro pick comb was patented by Samuel H. Bundles Jr. and Henry M. Childrey (who in 1962 had patented a hair straightening product). Antonio Romani patented a clenched fist comb in the mid-1970s.
