Easter Cake

YEsterday I was talking to a lady that I go to church with, told her we were finally making it back to church this weekend. She said "GREAT! we are eating dinner and the kids are having an easter egg hunt."

I said we would not be eating or hunting, because we hadnt been in a few months, and I felt bad about just showing up and eating.

She insisted. So I got up and started a cake. or tried.
I had NOTHING to make a cake with. So I found a recipe that I could make one with what I had here.

THEN realized I didnt have any crisco. The kids had fed it to the chickens the last few days before show and I hadnt replaced it.

So I had to make a differnt buttercream. I HATED It. everyone else loved it.
The cake was okay- more of a pound cake.

I DID have fondant already made up from the last cake I made. Thank GOd, cause I had NONE of the ingrediants to make it.

SO- I set to making it. I had a vision of what I wanted. What means Easter to me, and the two things that I adore.

The Old Rugged Cross, and the Dogwood.

So, I threw this together last night. The Buttercream didnt harden, and I couldnt smooth it. and I was exhausted by the time I started the dogwood flowers, plus I didnt have gumpaste- so they were fondant and wouldnt harden, so they were not 'shaped' flowers, just flat.

I got there this morning and gave them my cake, and they decided to sell it for relay for Life instead of letting everyone eat it as a dessert.

Brett even got to auction it off.

Of course it was really late by the time it came up. It was one of the last things tagged, and people had already spent hundreds of dollars on other stuff.
and there were only a handful left there.

When Brett got to 20.00 the auctioneer said "thats a great price for a cake" and sold it with out asking for another bid. LOL



Since the guy who bought it gave it back to my kids I brought it home.

I found out that the pics of the flowers didnt come out well. So I retook them after cutting the cake. Please remember its been out in the heat since 9:30 this morning, OH and got rained on a little. LOL but you can see the crown of thorns, blood, and nail holes

Chelle, the auctioneer robbed Relay for Life by letting it go at that price. He has no idea what goes into making & decorating a cake. I'm glad that you got to bring it home, though.

Why was the fondant not hardening? Was it a humidity issue?

Thanks and yeah- your right, had they done it at the start, it would have brought in alot, cause folks were dropping 3 &400.00 on a plaque with a saying on it. But they would drop that and leave. that was just their donation for the day. they really didnt care what they were bidding on. LOL

The other cakes were a few carrot cakes and such, not decorated, just homemade, and one bakery cake. They brought 5.00-8.00 each.


My fondant hardens to a point. It doesnt get 'hard' like gumpaste does. It stays soft enough to eat. where as gumpaste is more like those sticks you use to dip in the flavor aid candy things, this fondant is .... kinda like the chocolate coating on a .... Oh hell I dont know. LOL

And I didnt really have time to let it set up before I decorated- I only had time to cut them,,paint them, and stick them on the cake.

Not too shabby for a rush job with lack of supplies, Chelle. You did great!

Chelle that 'wood' looks so real! You did a beautiful job, and it's so much more meaningful than a bunny cake or something like that.

Very nice Chelle : )

Thank you Karen I was most proud of that

I have actually found that I LOVe handpainting the fondant from the last two cakes.

I am NOT an artist. I cant draw, I cant paint. I have tried for years. I cant even doodle good. LOL

But these last two have been SOO easy!!

I am disapointed that I couldnt do the dogwood justice. They are just so.. poetic to me .. I guess thats right, that I would have loved for them to be perfect. BUT, my kids did learn the story of the dogwood, learn the meaning of it, and have a newfound resepct for it. Its funny, I've told them the story for years, but they 'got' it this time. I guess cause it was in their hands and they saw me putting each element in it.
So that makes it more than worth it.

And on the way to church this morning, I heard Brad Paisley sing "old Rugged cross" and it couldnt have been more perfect or fitting.

Thank you Tara and Lori.

Oh and I did get asked MORe than once, if it had a jewerly box (granted that was from a kid) or something else (decoration, etc - from kids and adults alike) on top. NOONE belived it was cake. To me, that was the biggest complement. When someone doesnt belive that its handmade and edible.

The Old Rugged Cross - a beautiful song. I fancy it sung by John Prine and Mac Wiseman. Anybody heard it?

I never have heard it sang by them Trax. I've heard it sang by various artists, but the one that sticks in my head is my grandfather singing it anytime it came on the radio or we went to church. It was the one song we wanted at my granmothers funeral for sure.

And I learned the legend of the dogwood at my grandmothers knee. She always loved them, and passed that on to me.

not to peddled here - John Prine/Mac Wiseman have a cd out - Standard Songs For Average People. It rang true to me.

My Mother when she was living loved the song - Old Rugged Cross. She told me three days prior to her death she wanted that song played at her funeral service. I did not reside in the same city but relayed it to my brothers who could not come up with the song. (not my problem, they live with it now).

I do not get to visit my parents gravesite often. Last time I went, I took my cd player/headphone thing. I sat on the grass all plugged in and sang with John Prine/Mac Wiseman - The Old Rugged Cross.

I am not of the religious factor, my Mom was - I respect - and I always will.

chelle, the dogwood, I do not understand. I know it as the flower of the province to which I reside. It grows wild here. Please explain the dogwood on the side of religion. thank you - trax

Trax,

Bascily the dogwood tree is the tree that the wood of made the cross for Jesus to be crucified on. It was one of the only trees in the region that was big enough or strong enough to make a cross out of. The cross weighed 30.. Kilograms.. (sorry, my metrics are bad... )
It was as big as an oak in those times. It was what the Romans used for all criminals to be nailed to.
And they made him wear a crown of thorns, because he was the 'king of Jews'.


So once he was resurected, he promised that never again would the dogwood grow as tall, or as large for someone to be nailed to it.
and the flower would always carry his mark.

The flower makes a cross (two long - two short) .
The center makes the crown of thorns.
The nail holes are showing at the edges
and the blood stains are there.

There is a poem for it. I have it hanging on my wall.

It says:


When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew to a towering size, with a lovely hue.
Its branches were strong and interwoven,
and for Christs cross its timbers were chosen.
Being distress at the use of this wood,
Christ made a promise which still holds good:

"not ever again shall the dogwood grow
to be large enough for a tree, and so
Slender and twists it shall always be-
with cross shaped blossoms for all to see.
The petals shall have bloddstains marked in brown
and in the blossoms center a thorny crown.
All who see it will think of me,
Nailed to a cross from a dogwood tree.
Protected and cherished this tree shall be
A reflection to all of my agony. "




They grow wild here too. My land had hundreds of them. I was SOO thrilled when we moved here. I marked them all, told the loggers not to touch them. but some were hit. not many, and they replaced them. Then RIta came through and destroyed almost all of them. They are coming back, Right now I can look out and see the white amoungst all the green. We have a dogwood festival in the next town over. it was last weekend. I dont know if y'all have the same one we have or not. Our flowers are white, with brownish red spots throughout. No rhyme or reason to them. Not an exact number of spots. I counted them to make sure. and our crown of thorns is yellow/green, but more yellow. and the holes at the end of the petals are rimmed with brownish red.

Our state flower is the bluebonnet, which is my favorite flower, aside from the yellow rose. and it has a legend to it too.

we had wild dog woods growing in our woods in MI... loved them, and always remember the biblical story... now down here in SW KY... we have a zillion dogwoods, in fact up untll a few years ago, they would hold a dog wood festival... and here in SW ... it's still holds a very regligious meaning.... this is the south, the Bible belt of the south.