Over the holiday season, I attended a party and noticed a Butter Sculptures tree placed on the buffet table near the basket of rolls. Nice touch I thought; I love that our hostess went the extra mile to make the table look festive.
Then, on my recent shopping trip, I happened to notice this same butter sculpture on sale. I’m thinking I need to buy this and try it out since the price went from $4.99 to $1.25 per tree. Even though the holidays are over, I can still use butter.
Butter Sculptures by Keller’s Creamery
The butter shaped tree sculpture uses salted butter and is sold in a 4-ounce package. This butter sculpture comes from Keller’s Creamery which, apparently, has been in business since 1906. Upon reviewing their website, they also make bunny and turkey shaped butter sculptures which I guess they sell during the Easter and Thanksgiving Day seasons.
This butter tree is sold in a box with the tree in a plastic mold. That way, it should come out perfect every time. The box states for best appearances remove the tree from the mold when it is still very cold.
I actually watched a video of someone trying to remove butter from a vintage wooden butter press. Hum m m . . . ., not as easy as you think. The video uses olive oil to grease the mold. I’m thinking probably an ungreased but cold mold might work better. She also placed the mold in ice water.
Vintage Butter Presses
This butter sculpture got me thinking about, vintage butter presses.
The wooden butter molds were used to stamp and shape butter before it cooled and hardened. Dairy farmers used this unique way to identify their product making it sort of a trademark. Customers would recognize a certain dairy farm by the butter stamp.
Butter presses were used in late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. They were hand turned from solid wood. The interiors often show a deeply carved floral or wheat motif. This symbolized abundance, nature and harvest.
Butter Mold, Butter Crock or Butter Tub?
We actually have what I call a Butter Mold at the historic farmhouse.
However, now I am not sure after reading up on it. Butter crocks or butter tubs feature a fixed, hand carved interior base which is permanent and not removable. It was intended for butter, lard or soft cheese storage rather than stamping.
Butter Print
This small butter print makes an individual serving of butter. This piece was donated to the historic farmhouse. The blog photograph was taken from another Farmhouse Magic Blog article.
Notice the carved floral design on the bottom piece of wood.
Faux Butter from Press on Display
I made a large butter pat using Crayola Clay Magic and the fancy bottom of a dish. This butter pat was painted with light yellow paint. This item was previously donated to the historic farmhouse and is often used in meal displays.
The faux butter pat is the light-yellow pat in the left-hand side of this photograph. I am not able to use the butter press at the farm, so I made it up. Actually, freshly made butter looks more white than yellow.
These pieces were donated to that historic farmhouse.
Ending Notes on Butter Sculptures
So, lots to blog about on Butter sculptures.
I like having a holiday tree shaped butter pat next to rolls. it’s all in the details as they say.
Looks like I’m going to add an addendum to this blog just as soon as I taste that buttery tree.
Enjoy your day!
Resource Sites: Keller’s Creamery website, Etsy site, and Curdcreation.com
Note – Today’s photographs were not taken at the historic farmhouse.