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)
The magical frog – Adam’s entry 
A mid century Australian wall sconce – Retroppo’s contest entry 
A vintage TV light combined with a goldfish bowl – Barbara’s entry 
Grandmother’s vintage medic case – Kristin’s entry 
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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.