Finally, Pre-Heated Electric 'Toastie Knife' Solves Butter-Spreading Woes

A universal breakfast menace has been running rampant throughout history, but the good folks of Great Britain have finally devised a tidy solution to this pesky breakfast "bugbear."

It's that spreading-cold-butter-on-toast issue we all know, ruining mornings regularly, resulting in mangled slices of toasted bread riddled with un-spreadable chunks of butter. Most mornings, you throw your knife down in exasperation and pull out the cereal in defeat.

Now you won't have to, thanks to British baker Warburtons' most recent invention: the pre-heated electric butter knife. Powered by AA batteries, the "Toastie Knife" heats to exactly 41.8 degrees Celsius (determined by buttered-toast researchers to be the optimum butter-spreading temperature), so as to melt butter just enough to spread smoothly without tearing the bread. All it takes is a push of a button on the handle that activates the heat, and a flashing LED indicates whether it's on. The knife is reported to butter toast in a speedy 30 seconds.

The invention will prove quite a relief to toast-related troubles. Twenty-eight percent of Brits say they heat the butter in the microwave to ease the task of spreading, 8 percent let the butter sit on a plate atop the toaster, 7 percent heat the butter knife on the hearth, and 1 percent have even resorted to heating butter with a hair-dryer to soften the spread. No one should have to go through this much trouble before breakfast, and that's likely why the pre-heated electric butter knife was rated as the most-desired breakfast innovation.

Stuart Jones from Warburtons says, "Baking is a blend of expert craft and science and to make the perfect piece of toast it is essential to use a good-quality loaf that offers butterability." Jones is currently the "Butterability expert" at-large at Warburtons.

Warburtons has yet to set a production date, and it's not clear if or when this creation will be available, nor how much it will cost. Until then, the morning butter battle will have to carry on. 

Photo courtesy of Warburtons.