GE AMERICANA CARROT CAKE

[tomturbomatic]

Skylight oven window

This feature was available for a very short time as it vanished on the TOL Americana style single and double oven ranges when the self cleaning feature was introduced and the space was used for the instructions over the door lock. There were three pieces of glass involved. The high temp piece in the top of the oven was placed between the two turns of the front broiler element. I think that the gaskets were asbestos. Unlike any other GE range, this has two broiler elements that go sideways across the top of the oven and total 5,000 watts. There is no metal reflector over it, but there is a gray porcelain enamel reflector near the front of the oven to throw the heat back toward the food instead of letting it go up and out the door opening. The extra 2,000 watts was to compensate for the different element pattern and absence of the traditional broiler reflector. Early advertising photos showed this range in a somewhat darkened kitchen with the oven elements on so that an orange glow showed through this window.

 

[bobofhollywood]

view inside the lower oven / reflector

Here's a shot inside the lower oven, showing the front porcelain reflector. I'll try to get a shot of the double broil element glowing and post it later.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Tom, for all your expert posts. You're truly one of the most intelligent and wonderful guys I've ever met. May you live to be 120 years old.

 

[cleanfresh]

Bob, about those decorative carrots

Are those carrots made of marizipan(almond paste)?

 

[bobofhollywood]

marzipan

Yes, Cleanfresh. Those are marzipan carrots, tinted by hand with food coloring.

 

[jasonl]

you the man

Again, you never fail to impress. Great work and I love that vintage cake dish.

Food just tastes better cooked on a classic stove.

 

[cleanfresh]

Thanks, Bob

Forgive me for the typo where I put two i's in marzipan. Ooops!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Bob, Thanks, but you are the artistic one that can arrange a bunch of old stuff just sitting around so that it looks like a museum display instead of a basement that needs cleaning. The decorative carrots look almost like vanes in a blower wheel. Imagine if you put the cake on a turntable at 33 or 45 rpm!

Lawrence, I make my zucchini bread/cake in the Cuisinart also. Do you shred the carrots first and then put the blade in to mix the batter, adding the carrots when it says to add them?

Venus, Old O&M ranges had a periscope system with a window on the backsplash, mirrors and a window in the top of the oven so that when you turned on the oven light, you could see what was cooking. In all of the restored ranges I saw in California stores that rebuild them (and where the price tags just say "BEND OVER & GRAB THE STOVE")these viewing systems were not restored. It was too difficult to take apart and the original seals allowed the cooking vapors to enter and coat the pieces of glass which over time produced another type of "Brown Out." I think the heat might have hurt the silver on the mirrors also so it probably was a design that would have deteriorated with use in several ways.

 

[maytagbear]

My carrot cake....

Is made with the Steel Knife ("S" blade,) and just the Steel Knife. It's in one of the archived threads, however, if anyone wants it, email me using the addy in my profile.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[cycla-fabric]

Carrot Cake

Bob, that carrot cake looks excellent and it is my favorite cake AH.... homemade is the best! Made me hungry just looking at it, HA HA