A rose by any other name...

Cake!

As you might expect from a girl who loves to bake, I have any number of tins and boxes in which I store my cakes. They range from the practical but boring plastic 'click & seal' tubs to charming biscuit tins I've accumulated over the years. I'm a sucker for a pretty tin, so much so that I've been known to spend a silly amount of money on not-very-nice biscuits I don't want just to get the delightful tin they come in. I also have a much loved, purpose-made red cake tin that was a gift from my sister - vintage in style, air-tight, with 'Cake' printed on the side. Altogether fabulous.

Sadly empty Roses tin

The far less glamorous side of my tin collection, however, is the ubiquitous Cadbury's Roses tin, now sadly emptied of chocolates and used to house various items, baked or otherwise. There used to be a tradition of re-using chocolate or biscuit tins, but as with everything else, tins are now seen as disposable and once the Christmas chocolate binge has morphed into January belt-tightening, out they go into the wheelie bin. The fact that the big brand tins (Cadbury's Roses, Nestle's Quality Street, Jacob's Kimberleys, etc.) are far less imaginative in design than the decorative tins of the late 19th and earlier 20th century, no doubt discourages people from holding on to them.

New tin lid

Re-using empty tins is good for the environment (less crap going into the landfills and fewer resources being wasted to create new tins); they tend to be air tight so they make excellent storage for baked goods and as they're also fairly sturdy, stackable and neat in size, they make ideal receptacles for the odds and ends that tend to accumulate around the house. The problems arise when you spot one of these tins, get terribly excited at the prospect of a chocolate or biscuit, only to find that it's either empty or full of something else altogether. Some of my earliest memories are associated with the disappointment of coming across a Roses tin post-Christmas and finding not chocolates but left-over Christmas cake or some meringues (not a bad thing you might think, but when you have a hankering for a chocolate, cake or meringue is no real substitute). The use of an empty biscuit or chocolate tin as a 'bits and bobs' tin was also fairly common in the past and an even more distressing memory is of opening the USA biscuit tin in my Nanny's pantry only to find loose screws, nails, bits of string and the odd bolt or too. Crestfallen doesn't even begin to describe the look on my little face.

Tin base

I'm proudly continuing the family tradition and use some of my old tins to store goodies or bits and bobs (odd lengths of ribbon, embroidery / sewing kit, cookie cutters, cake decorating paraphernalia, etc.). My magpie-like habit of buying pretty baubles and trinkets (e.g. ornamental buttons that I can't resist but which I will probably never use), is probably linked to my desire to have as many attractive storage options as possible (those buttons are currently housed in a recycled fluted glass jar). Rather than spend money on brand new fancy tins to fulfill my storage needs, I'm more than happy to re-use the tins left-over from the festive season, but since I don't find them at all lovely to look at, I tend to shove them under the sofa or inside a cupboard. Problems arise when the cupboards are full (which they are) and nothing more can be squeezed into the narrow space beneath the sofa (try as I might). If I'm going to have tins on show, then they will damn well be pleasing to the eye. 

Tin in situ

So in theory, the empty Christmas chocolate or biscuit tin is the ideal storage solution. In practice, well, as discussed, they're not very nice to look at - bland and as far from unique or interesting as it's possible to get. The main issue is one of aesthetics. What's a girl to do? Decoupage ladies and gentlemen - a spot of cut and paste and before you know it, you'll have your very own decorative tin in which you can put all manner of odds and ends. I've been planning to upcycle my collection of Roses tins for ages and finally got round to doing one (and boy am I glad I have more to play with, as I've noticed that this year's batch of Christmas chocolates come in nasty plastic tubs rather than tins - end of an era folks).    

My chocolate tin

I went for a black and white colour palette with a historic theme (you can take the girl out of archaeology...). I used sections of John Rocque's map of Dublin (my home town) from 1756 and prints of different views of Georgian Dublin. Now I have a tin full of chocolate that I can proudly leave sitting atop a pile of books in the corner of my sitting room. A tin plastered in old maps and images of the Fair City in days of yore might not be everyone's cup of tea, but that's the point. It's my tin, decorated by me, for me and it makes me smile every time I look at it. Job done.