By cake board, where used hereinafter, it is meant any blank made from card, plastic, insulation material, plywood, chipboard or the like that may be shaped by cutting using a cutting press, shears, formed using a laser or moulded from plastic material and used as a cake board, cake card or cake drum.

Hitherto, as disclosed in GB 1,490, 022, cake boards blanks of multifarious shapes, sizes and thickness have been made from insulating materials, e. g. fibreboard, expanded polystyrene or sandwiched corrugated cardboard, the blanks then being covered on at least one side and around a peripheral edge with a decorative paper.

In recent times, cake boards have been formed as blanks from any suitable material, the blanks thereafter having a laminated foil band coated with glue and applied around a peripheral edge and over the marginal edge portions of the blank on each side thereof.

A plain paper blank, slightly smaller than the cake board blank, is then coated with glue and attached to one side of the cake board blank. A laminated foil blank, also slightly smaller than the cake board blank, is then coated with glue and attached to an opposite side of the cake board blank.

Decorative cake cards have also been formed as blanks of many different shapes, sizes and thickness. Each blank has an oversized decorative foil attached to one side by an adhesive, the edge of the foil thereafter being turned over the edge of the blank and onto a peripheral margin of an opposite side of the blank.

Paper, normally white and of smaller overall size than the cake card blank is then attached to an opposite side of the blank by a suitable adhesive.

It will therefore be appreciated that the methods used hitherto for the production of cake boards, cake cards and cake drums have been labour intensive insofar that several separate components are utilised in a series of operations to complete their manufacture.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least mitigate the drawbacks and disadvantages of prior cake boards and their methods of manufacture.

Thus, the present invention conveniently provides a cake board as hereinbefore defined comprising a blank enveloped in a film of shrink-wrap material.

Preferably, the shrink-wrap material may be of plastic or plastic-like material.

More preferably, the shrink-wrap material may be pre-coloured.

In a further preferred arrangement provided by the invention, the shrink-wrap material may be of plasticised mirror foil.

Convenienly, the shrink-wrap material, when applied to a blank, may be printed with a patterned or plain, silver and/or gold finish to simulate embossed or plain foil.

In a further convenient arrangement provided by the invention, the shrink-wrap material, when applied to a blank may have a hologram, logo or bespoke indicia printed thereon.

Preferably, the blank may be cut, pressed or formed from card, a lightweight insulation material or the like and be 4.75 mm to 25.4 mm in thickness.

Conveniently, the film of shrink-wrap material may be from 10 microns to 150 microns in thickness.

The present invention also provides a method of forming a cake board as hereinbefore defined, the method comprising the steps of cutting or forming a blank of suitable material characterised in that the method includes enveloping the blank in a film of shrink-wrap material to form the cake board.

There now follows, by way of example of the invention, a detailed description, which is to be read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is an upper perspective view of a cake board; Figure 2 is a section view along the line II-II of Figure 1; Figure 3 is an upper perspective view of a cake card; and, Figure 4 is a section view along the line VI-VI of Figure 3.

In general terms the present invention provides a cake board 2, which comprises a blank 4 of heart shaped configuration, see Figure 1; the present invention also providing a cake card 6, which comprise a blank 8 of circular configuration, see Figure 3.

The blanks 4 and 8 are made from insulation material, e. g. polystyrene, however, the material from which the blanks 4 and 8 may be formed includes any lightweight insulation material, recycled paper, cardboard, chipboard or the like.

The blanks 4 and 8 may be formed by any convenient method, for example they may be formed by cutting with a band-saw, a laser, a guillotine or a punch die mounted in a press.

The outline of the blanks 4 and 8 provided by the present invention may be circular, square, oblong or any other arbitrary shape to suit the product that is to be supported and displayed thereon.

The blank 4 is some 12.5 to 25.4 mm in thickness depending upon the strength requirements thereof.

The blank 6 is some 4.75 to 6.35 mm in thickness depending upon the strength requirement thereof.

The blank 4 of the cake board 2 is covered in a shrink-wrap film 10 of plastic or plastic like material, which film 10 may be applied to the blank 4 by known shrink- wrap techniques.

Likewise, the blank 8 of the cake card 6 is covered in a shrink-wrap film 12 of plastic or plastic like material, which film 12 is also applied to the blank 8 by known shrink- wrap techniques.

The shrink-wrap film material may be pre-coloured, a plasticised mirror foil.

Irrespective of the specification of the shrink-wrap material applied to the blanks 4 and 8, after application of the shrink-wrap material to the blanks, they may be printed with a patterned or plain silver and/or gold finish to simulate embossed or plain foil.

Alternatively, or in addition, the shrink-wrap material, when applied to the blanks 4 and 8 may have a hologram, logo or bespoke indicia printed thereon.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the cake boards 2 and cake cards 6 provided by the present invention greatly reduce the number of component parts needed when compared to those required to make prior art cake boards and cake cards.

In addition, the methodology used by the present invention provides a less labour intensive production method while providing superior end products.

The cake boards, cake cards or cake drums produced by the above method may themselves be enveloped in a clear shrink-wrap film for packaging and transport to an end user.