My husband, Chris, turned 55 today!! We hadn't planned anything special, but a friend (Paul L.) asked if we would surprise him and make a birthday cake shaped like a pulpit for his birthday.
Hummmm... It was hard to figure out how to make it without him being around, because the day before his birthday was Labor Day and we would all be off and at home all day. The day before that was Sunday, and pretty impossible to make then. Which means we only had his birthday to make it on. Again, I would have to make this cake by myself while Joy, my husband, and Chelsey were at church in the morning. Joy and I are a true team, because we each have different creative and artistic talents that when combined, really help in the production of the cakes we create. I was not too excited about doing it on my own, but had no other options.
Before hand, Joy and I talked about different pulpits and the good and bad of working with each. The big kind with two small sides would be hard with all those angles, but the pulpit we have at our church is so skinny. So, what you see is a self designed pulpit!!
Joy did bake the cake the day before, and all my husband knew is that we were going to put a homemade whipped cream frosting on it for lunch the following day. Which was no lie, because I planned to put a whipped cream frosting on it. I found a recipe that was suppose to be a sturdy frosting that could be at room temperature and was used for wedding cakes. It was not an easy recipe to frost with smoothly though!! After about 7 - 8 tries with this recipe, I took the scrap cake pieces and made a small layered cake (single serving) for my husband. He could eat his whipped frosting cake, and look at the other one!! I went to make a chocolate buttercream, but it was having problems too!! After another 7 - 8 tries with that. Becca suggested fondant... I only had an hour before they would get home, but I didn't feel I had any other options. I got out the fondant and started kneading in brown. I painted it with food coloring and vanilla extract. The Bible is also made of fondant (as planned from another suggestion of Becca's) and the microphone is a dark gray royal frosting piped onto a wire. With being so busy with the cake, Becca was the only one to make her dad's birthday meal - fried chicken livers, rice, gravy, and spinach!! She did a great job, and I am thinking she might need to learn to cook meals more often and maybe even do a little cake decorating with us!!
My husband, Chris, really liked the cake! Although I am sure he will eat his cake with whipped cream frosting and not the decorated one... since he does not really care for fondant!!
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