First, an anecdote:

Way back in the mists of time (by which I mean about 40 years ago), my
mother and father were wed. Their first holiday together, she decided
to make her family's traditional sour cream coffee cakes.
Unfortunately, as my father was a junior enlisted type in the Navy and
my mother in college, they were so poor that she couldn't afford the
angel food cake pans that the recipes called for. Instead, she bought
a pair of the cheapest pans in the store, which were sort of but not
really like angel food cake pans without the center insert.

As such things inevitably happen, it turned out that the coffee cakes
she made with these pans were the best she'd ever had. And as a
result, my family has had cakes made with those pans every Thanksgiving
and Christmas ever since. In addition, my mother would keep an eye out
for more of those pans in case something ever happened to hers, but she
was never able to find any that were quite right. I've also casually
looked for over a decade, and never found any that were really right.

So, here are a couple of pictures of one of the pans.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/e/w/ewdotson/Picture%20061.jpg

http://bellsouthpwp.net/e/w/ewdotson/Picture%20062.jpg

I was wondering if these pans looked at all familiar to anyone here. I
showed some friends of mine these pictures, and a couple of them
noticed how similar they looked to their dogs' dishes. I have to
admit that since they've been The Coffee Cake Pans since before I was
born, that wouldn't have occured to me, but I can see their point. But
for some reason, I find myself hoping that someone might know a place I
could get similar pans that were designated for human use.

And so long as I'm here, the coffee cake recipe in question:

************************************************** ******
Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 stick margarine 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar 2 eggs
1 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda
=BD teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar combimed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until soft and fluffy. Sift the
flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to the first
mixture alternately with the cup of sour cream.

Sift the 4 tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon and set aside.

Have ready a large angel cake tin greased but not floured. Put in half
the cake mixture, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture -
using about half. Add the rest of the batter and sprinkle the rest of
the cinnamon mixture on top.

Bake 35 - 40 minutes in a 350 oven. When done, remove to a plate and
- if desired - with the top side up, glaze lightly with an icing
made with confectioner sugar, milk and vanilla. Have the glaze very
thin, add a few pecans halves.
************************************************** ********

As a note, at least in the pans we've always cooked them in, they take
more like 55-60 minutes to cook through, and for my particular branch
of the family tree at least, the glaze is NOT optional.

Thanks,
Ernest Dotson