Abstract:
A mold for a cupcake, muffin, moldable food, or the like having a cup with an open end surrounded by a decorative peripheral border that is representational of the periphery of a head or face of a person or animal. The border is wider than the cup at the open end and stiffens the mold. The border invites a person to decorate the batter or foodstuff in the mold with representations of facial features.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The invention herein disclosed concerns a cupcake or muffin mold, also useful for chilled, gelatinous or other moldable food, and particularly concerns a decorative peripheral border extending around the periphery of the mold and additionally serving to stiffen the mold around the opening. 
         [0002]    When this specification refers only to a cupcake, the disclosure applies to a muffin and anything else that may be baked in a cupcake or muffin mold and also applies to any moldable food, e.g. gelatin desserts, that may be held in a mold for a purpose of baking, cooking, chilling, freezing, etc. 
         [0003]    A mold for a cupcake, muffin or other moldable food includes a receptacle for the cupcake batter to be baked or the food to be molded. The receptacle is cup shaped and has an open end with a periphery. The batter or foodstuff is placed in the cup through the open end. After the cupcake or muffin is baked or the moldable food has been prepared, it is removed from the cup through the open end. 
         [0004]    It is known to provide decoration on the exterior of a cupcake mold to make the mold attractive for purchase and use. Typically, the decoration is not also functional in the mold in some manner. Examples of ornamentation of cupcake molds appear in prior art. The ornamentation may provide a support for the mold, as in Patent D 552,409. It may be attached to the mold, as in Patent D 578,338. More relevant prior art for the present invention includes decorative or functional parts that are attached at the periphery of the opening. For example, in Patent D 628,446, the decoration is representational of legs, e.g. of an insect, and the opening in the mold defines the body of the insect. In Patent D 578,337, the mold is representational of the body of an animal, e.g. a bear, and elements of the bear anatomy are attached at locations around the opening in the mold, e.g. the head and neck at one side, the arms at the lateral sides and legs at the side opposite the head. In none of the art seen by Applicant is the decoration around the mold opening representational of a head or a face of an object. In none of the prior art is the periphery of the head or face completely surrounded by the decoration which wraps entirely around the opening, so that an entire representational head or face includes the opening into the cup and the decoration surrounding the opening. In none of the prior art is the decorative peripheral border around the cup opening also a stiffening of the area of the mold around the opening which stiffens and maintains the shape of the cup and its opening. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    The invention concerns an individual cupcake or muffin mold or mold for a moldable food having the entire periphery of its open end surrounded by a decorative peripheral border that gives the mold the appearance of a head or face and the decorative peripheral border completely surrounding the open end of the mold is also the peripheral part of the head or face, such that the decoration is not placed only at spaced apart locations around the open end. The radial width of the decoration around the open end is greater than the radial width of the cup, such that the additional material of the peripheral border provides additional support and stiffening for the open end and helps it maintain its shape. Particularly when the mold cup and its open end are made of a flexible material, which aids in the release of a baked cupcake or muffin from the mold, this stiffening is of assistance to maintain the shape of the mold which is deformed when the baked cupcake is removed. 
         [0006]    In the preferred form, the entire cupcake mold including the decorative peripheral border is made of a material which releases a baked cupcake or muffin or other food from the mold. The material of the mold, including the peripheral border may be of paper, metal, release agent, like Teflon™ (polyurethane) abated metal, plastic, rubber, etc. In a more preferred form, the mold and its decorative peripheral border are made from flexible, silicone rubber which is a release material that may be molded to the designed shape, which can withstand the heat of baking, the chill of freezing, the process of cleaning for reuse and is deformable so that the material in the mold and the baked cupcake, et al easily separate from the mold. Further, silicone rubber is capable of being produced in any color, so that the decoration of the head or face around the mold can be of a selected color or a color consistent with the nature of the decoration, as described further below. 
         [0007]    It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a cupcake or muffin mold which is representational of a head or a face of an object. 
         [0008]    It is another object of the invention to provide such a mold of a deformable material and the decorative peripheral border helps stiffen the mold at the opening into the mold. 
         [0009]    A further object is to have such a mold which releases the baked cupcake or muffin or molded food item. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING(S) 
         [0010]    The foregoing and other objects will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments shown in the accompanied drawings in which: 
           [0011]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view from the top or front side of a cupcake or muffin mold showing the invention applied to one measurement of a cupcake mold; 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  is a top view thereof; 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  is a side view thereof; 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view thereof across the centerline of the mold at  4 - 4  in  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  is a bottom view thereof; 
           [0016]      FIG. 6  shows the mold containing batter and decoration; 
           [0017]      FIG. 7  is a perspective view of a second embodiment of a cupcake or muffin mold; 
           [0018]      FIG. 8  is a top view thereof; 
           [0019]      FIG. 9  is a side view thereof; 
           [0020]      FIG. 10  is a cross-sectional view thereof across the centerline of the mold at  10 - 10  in  FIG. 8 ; and 
           [0021]      FIG. 11  is a bottom view thereof. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0022]    A cupcake or muffin mold or a mold for other moldable food items are hereinafter referred to as a cupcake mold which represents one form or use of the invention. 
         [0023]    A cupcake mold  10  includes a cup portion  12  with an open top end  14  and a closed bottom  16 . It has a circular peripheral wall  18  with crenellations  19  optionally provided. 
         [0024]    The periphery  20  of the cup  12  at the open end  14  has a decorative peripheral border  22  surrounding and around its entire periphery, preferably without any spaces along the decorative peripheral border. The decorative peripheral border projects out from the periphery  20  of the cup and provides stiffening for the upper open end  14  of the cup so that it retains or restores to an original shape, here shown as circular, even when the cup may be manipulated and held for initial loading of the batter and for later removal of a baked cupcake from the mold. 
         [0025]    In a preferred form, the mold  10  and its decorative peripheral border  22  is a one-piece mold. It is preferably comprised of or at least coated with a release material as described above. It is preferably comprised of silicone rubber or other release material that can be molded into a desired shape and can be made of a desired color. Silicone rubber is capable of being molded, can withstand the heat of baking or freezing in a refrigerator, has excellent release properties so that batter in the mold, and a baked cupcake or the like or a chilled moldable food item in the mold cup will not stick to the material of the mold or of the decorative peripheral border around the mold and the baked cupcake and food is released from the mold. 
         [0026]    In order to make the mold and its intended use more attractive to users who may be interested in decorative cupcake molds or who may want to decorate a cupcake before it is baked, the decorative peripheral border  22  around the periphery of the mold represents a portion of a head or a face that surrounds typically the entire periphery of the face or the mold and so defines the border of a head or face area. There may be short or arcuate areas of the periphery where the additional ornamentation at the periphery of the mold is lacking for aesthetic reasons. But, either the entire periphery of the mold or nearly the entire periphery is surrounded by the decoration. Numerous embodiments of ornamentation may be selected for the border, each suggesting a selected type of head or face. The decorative peripheral border surrounding the cup open end appears as a representation of a surrounding area of a face or head. The entire open end  14  into the cup  12  and the decorative peripheral border  22  around it define a single head or face, not a body with several parts of anatomy projecting from it, as in prior art. 
         [0027]    To stiffen the decorative peripheral border  22 , it may be thickened or may have a rib  24  around its periphery and a rib  26  radiating out from the periphery  18  of the cup  12  to the periphery  24  of the decoration  22 . 
         [0028]    Various examples of heads or faces are illustrated in drawing Figures. In the first embodiment of  FIGS. 1-5 , for example, the decorative peripheral border  22  together with the head opening of the open end  14  of the cup suggests a witch, and the face in the opening would be that of a witch. 
         [0029]    Another decorative peripheral border embodiment in  FIGS. 7-11  suggests a pumpkin. Elements of this second embodiment correspond to the first embodiment and are identified by replace numbers raised by 20. For Halloween in the United States, the pumpkin shaped cupcake mold  30  has a face opening  34 , as is true with a Jack-O-Lantern, which is a typical Halloween decoration. Other design embodiments may include faces of animals or of people costumed for particular events like weddings, or holidays, such as Christmas or Easter. The variety of different peripheral border ornamentations around heads or faces is limited by the imagination of persons creating heads or faces for a cupcake mold which is fully surrounded by the representation that suggest the head or face. 
         [0030]    It is particularly useful for the decorative peripheral border and the cup opening to together define a head or face. Designs of heads or of faces in heads are interesting and attractive areas for creative decoration, as also applies to many toys that have provision for decorating a face. This can make the cupcake mold particularly attractive to children who can decorate the batter placed in the cup opening. For example, as shown in  FIG. 6  the batter  27  for creating the cupcake, or the like, may be placed in the cup  12  and then a person, such as a child, may decorate the batter in the mold with representations of facial features  28 , such as eyes, nose and mouth made of any selected relevant material, such as confection that would be used on or with a cupcake. The child could feel part of the cupcake creation process. The batter decoration would remain with the cupcake, or the like, after the cupcake is baked and removed from the cupcake mold. 
         [0031]    When a cupcake or muffin is baked from batter placed into a mold, as the batter is baked, it expands out of the mold and defines a top or a cap that spreads out slightly over the peripheral border of the cupcake mold. The decorative peripheral border is generally flat on its top side  29  so that the underside of the cap region of the cupcake or muffin will form in a normal way on top of the border around the mold. The border  22  around the cup of the mold may have profiling, grooves, or ridges which are neither tall nor deep and so do not interfere with the spreading of the batter as it is baked or with the shape of the eventual cupcake or mold. The release material of the mold, which material is included in the peripheral border, permits separation of the cupcake or muffin from the mold including separation from the decorative peripheral border around the open end of the mold. 
         [0032]    Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.