Elizabeth serves us this 2nd entry in our Found Objects Found Art contest. She writes:
Hi Pam,
Thank you so much for posting the crystal cut plastic hangers today. The instant I saw them I was reminded of one of my favorite finds of the retro era — a tall crystal cut plastic cake saver/carrier. Since I am a baker, this gets a lot of use in my home and I can’t imagine why it wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when you announced the contest.
There used to be a shop here called simply, Kitchen. The owner had all sorts of vintage kitchen items and I stopped in often. Over the few years she was in business I bought so many cake plates to give to friends and relatives that she referred to me as “the cake lady”. This was my last purchase, I think, and for me alone. I already had an old tin cake saver, but this one was so tall that it filled a need the other did not. But, most of all, it “spoke” to the jewelry collector in me. I saw it as one glittery kitchen accessory to “go with” all the rhinestone jewelry from the ’40′s — ’60′s that I have collected over the years. I know it is intended to mimic cut crystal, but to me it was just another jewel for my home.
Elizabeth (aka Elizabeth Mary)
I’ve been waiting to hear your story, Elizabeth, since I first saw your cake plate/cover on the contest entries photos. Great find!
Soooo pretty! I hope you bake vintage-style cakes, too! Do you have Betty Crocker’s 50s cake book? I can just imagine some of those lovely confections on this sparkly treasure.
I am a vintage seller and I sold this very cake plate several months ago! I thought it was the most beautiful cake saver I had ever seen! I have one like this for my own use but it is white plastic (cut to look like milk glass!)
Great entry, Elizabeth. I just saw one of these plastic crystal cake plates earlier today at an estate sale & I thought of your post. The one I saw wasn’t in quite as good a shape as yours appears to be. I left it for someone else to find because, alas, I don’t bake cakes.
Tikimama 01.31.09 at 4:38 pm
Soooo pretty! I hope you bake vintage-style cakes, too! Do you have Betty Crocker’s 50s cake book? I can just imagine some of those lovely confections on this sparkly treasure.
I couldn’t agree with you more!
Tikimama and PugFreek,
You will probably both be happy to know that I do bake vintage type cakes. Most recently it has housed a 1-2-3-4 cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. No fancy cakes come from my oven, just good old fashioned cakes — usually tube cakes, but sometimes layer cakes.
I don’t have the Betty Crocker 50′s book, but find the good older recipes in many others — most often Richard Sax’s “Classic Home Desserts”, a 1994 award winning book that has become my “go to” for cakes in the past 14 years.
Elizabeth Mary – 4-layer cakes? I am visiting SOON for sure!!!!
Pam,
Sorry, not 4 layers — 2 or 3 layers depending on the size of the pan used. Even this tall cake saver would not hold 4 layers. 1-2-3-4 Cake is a very old recipe for yellow cake. The numbers refer to the quantity of 4 key ingredients: 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 4 eggs. It has been around since before there were proper measuring tools.