So there I was browsing the
John Lewis website, as I do every year for my Christmas shopping. I'm a big John Lewis fan and always manage to get a good proportion of my Christmas shopping done every year with them. Anyway I was looking through their fabulous food gifts when I came across this lush
double chocolate orange cake. Well, I thought "
it is Christmas" so I popped one in my virtual shopping trolley as a treat for myself. After all if you can't buy yourself cake at Christmas when can you?
Bang on time, a couple of days later the delivery came and after unpacking the rest of the Christmas presents I had bought for my nearest and dearest I thought I would treat myself to a slice of my new cake and a freshly brewed coffee, after all unpacking and then wrapping gifts is hard work :)
However I was in for a nasty shock...I took the plastic lid off the cake box only to come face to face with a giant tin! Kinda like a massive tin of tuna. After inspecting it for a few minutes I came to the realisation that this was indeed a giant tin and I would have to find a tin opener to get to the cake. Now I don't often have the need for a tin opener as soup, beans and tuna all come with ring pulls now. However after what seemed like an eternity I did find my old tin opener at the back of a cupboard. Right, I'm in business I thought, how wrong I was. After a tortuous 15 minutes of going round and round the giant tin with the opener I was no nearer to being let in. All I had succeeded in doing is making a mess of the tin. At this point I blamed the tin opener as it hadn't being used for years and had possibly gone blunt. To be honest I'm not even sure if tin openers do go blunt but I was willing to give the gigantic John Lewis cake tin the benefit of the doubt.
So next day I trot off to my local supermarket and purchase a brand new tin opener, £9.99 no less, it had to work and I was once again filled with excitement of getting my hands on this oh-so-lovely cake. Sadly not. After another fruitless 20 minutes of trying to get into the tin all I had succeeded in doing is making an even bigger mess and creating some rather nasty looking sharp edges and a mess of iron fillings all over the kitchen bench. Completely disheartened at this point I set about the tin with the sharpest kitchen knives I own, trying to physically saw the lid off. Another 15 minutes later and fearing that I would cause myself a serious injury I gave up.
So here I am sat with 2 tin openers, a (now blunt) knife and a cake that looks delicious byt the Gods would deem I'm not ever going to taste. What to do? Does anyone have any advice?
Close up of my handiwork.
Let me in!!!
UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE
Following on from the advice in the comments I have purchased a 3rd tin opener, the old fashioned kind. And after only a minor fight with the tin I'm in!!! Haven't tasted it yet but it smells lush!
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Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
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Have you tried the tin opener upright to attack from the top?
http://pariswells.com/upload/upright-can-opening.jpg
If not , I advise chiselling away the top lid edgye with a knife and saucepan !
Yes, a few peope suggested that on Twitter. Tried but no luck, this is the thickest tin I’ve ever seen!!
What you need is one of those old fashioned can openers – the ones that leave deep red welts in your hands – but they work
Do you know any one with a chain saw? Butterfly can opener about 59p from Morrisons should do the trick. The really old fashioned ones are scary though. My nan used to use one and it was frightening to see her in action with it!
Love the photo, was reading the article thinking it really needs a photo and there it was!
Have you contacted John Lewis for an official response? Surely worthy of a stamp
On the plus side, at least the air can’t get to the cake!
I cant believe you cant open it!
It wasn’t in the ‘joke’ section was it? Seriously though, have you tried turning it upside down and opening it that way? It’s worked for me with Heinz Puddings before (MMMMM)
Try and angle grinder… failing that a hammer… always works for me.
Yep tried both ends to no avail. Would try a hammer and chisel if I wasn’t so worried about damaging the cake! Why it can’t come in a normal cake tin is beyond me.
Maybe it’s not your destiny to get into the tin. Like Arthur pulling the sword from the stone, only the true cake eater can open the tin.
Not the official John Lewis response I’m sure…
Maybe it does take a sledgehammer to crack a nut afterall…
Hi, I’m really sorry you’ve had such problems getting into the cake tin. I don’t have an answer for you immediately, but I’ll contact the buying office for their comments.
Thanks, John Lewis
My concern is that should you be opening it before you boil it? it may be the reason for it’s resistance!.
Hi again. I have spoken to the buyer and they are unaware of any similar issues. As a popular line that we’ve sold for 4 years now, if there was a design fault with the can we would take appropriate measures. This does not excuse the fact you’ve been disappointed. It may well be that the particular can you are attempting to open has a fault. Please do take it back to your local branch at your convenience so that you can have a refund. If you can take a print of this response it will help facilitate this refund.
Once again, apologies that you have had a frustrating experience – and still no cake!
Hope it’s worth all the effort! Enjoy!
Thanks for your comments guys. No need to take it back now though as you can see from the update above, it’s finally open!!
That does indeed look “lush”
Well done in getting it open and having John Lewis step into the fold. I might buy myself one after we get the update on the taste – don’t le…ave it sitting out too long mind you…
Yay for old fashioned tin openers!
i see you opened it from the bottom end – always a good bet!
Glad to see you opened the tin, albeit with great difficulty! I hope you enjoy it!
Since you got it from John Lewis you’ll probably find it comes with a 5 year guarantee, so you had plenty of time before having to eat to it!
You’ll want to add a facebook button to your blog. I just bookmarked this article, although I had to complete it manually. Simply my $.02
- Robson
So was it nice? And worth the trouble?
Wow, sorry you had to go through so much just to get to the cake. It certainly appears it was worth it though. That cake looks scrumptious. Enjoy!
That is not fair you had to go through so much trouble. I wonder what made them package the cake in an unopenable container. Maybe they should go peanut style and have a pop off lid and an aluminum freshness seal that you can get into.
can’t open it ? a tin opener or an angle grinder will do the work easily i guess
It’s the first time I see a cake in a can, and it’s weird it takes so much effort to open it. Congrats on finally making it! =)
Recently, I had one heck of a time opening a can of corned beef and I was immediately reminded of your experience. They really need to make cans easier to open, for sure.
Too funny, it does seem to be harder to open cans these days.
In my humble opinion there is a widespread problem with the quality control of modern tin-openers. I have about five of them, which varyied in price from £1 to £10, and now none of them will open a tin with acceptable ease. My latest model was priced at a low £1, yet surprsingly this has proved to be the best and has opened tins acceptably for an astonishing four months. It has just failed today and i am no longer able to open tins with unless i use a knife to prise parts of the lid up. My more expensive models (all are hand cranked) stopped working in any way whatsever after about two weeks of use. The axle bust on one, another just skitted about the top of the tin, bending the metal slightly. What is going on here; why can’t manufacturers solve basic mechanical problems that were solved two centuries or more ago?