FUKUI -- When baking a chiffon cake, you need a knife to remove it from its mold. Try one dedicated for this purpose developed by a designer, a cake shop owner and an artisan engaged in traditional knife production in Fukui Prefecture.
A video has been posted on Instagram demonstrating how the knife's straight blade makes it easy to remove a chiffon cake from its mold. This has created buzz that has triggered orders for the knife from all across the nation.
The trio behind the chiffon cake knife are Yuji Totani, a sharpener who works at the Takefu Knife Village workshop in Echizen in the prefecture, which is home to traditional knife production; designer Hiroo Okubo; and Hiroshi Watanabe, a representative of Snowcafe, a chiffon cake specialty cafe in Fukui city.
While regular knives have slightly curved blades, the chiffon cake knife's straight blade enables it to evenly touch a freshly baked cake so that it won't damage the surface when removing the cake from a mold.
Usually, patissiers need to skillfully handle their knives when removing chiffon cakes from a mold. However, Watanabe, 49, used to mainly use a fruit knife, often finding his efforts in vain by accidentally making some scratches on his chiffon cakes.
"The fluffy texture and appearance are vital for chiffon cakes," he said. "I wanted to produce more high-quality chiffon cakes."
In 2012, Watanabe asked Totani, 43, to produce a knife for chiffon cakes. Totani decided not just to meet his request but also to put the product on the market to help many people who bake such cakes.
Totani then asked for help from Okubo, 68, who drew up a blueprint based on Watanabe's requests and made a prototype by using a 3D printer.
Okubo and Watanabe then interviewed people nationwide who like to make chiffon cakes as a hobby to research the proper weight, balance and position for the handle, while Totani produced prototypes. Their chiffon cake knife was finally released in 2016.
In the first year, however, only two or three knives were sold per month. Watanabe became interested in Instagram, which was attracting more and more users at that time, and began posting a video and pictures on the shop's account to show how the new product can be used. Reactions such as "How can you get a cake out so beautifully?" and "Where can I get this knife?" spread, and the number of followers has now reached about 11,000.
Thanks to an increase in the number of orders, the first 500 knives sold out in January. As orders continued to pour in, sales of the chiffon cake knife resumed in June.
Watanabe described the knife as something that "reflects the ideas of those involved in chiffon cake making around the country."
Totani added: "Each knife is carefully sharpened by hand, so it has an outstanding cutting quality. I hope users will appreciate how useful the item is."
The chiffon cake knife starts at 15,000 yen before tax. Orders can be accepted on the websites of Watanabe's cafe (http://snowcafe2015.com) or Takefu Knife Village (www.takefu-knifevillage.jp).
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