Bedpan cake delights recipient

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When our friend, Jim, fell off a roof and required a few surgeries to repair the damage, we had just the gift to cheer him—a bedpan cake. Since he was the one to originate the idea, it seemed most appropriate.

Jim is a funny guy. True, he makes us laugh a lot. But I also mean, he is always playing jokes on others, particularly me. This is the second bedpan cake we have baked and decorated. Both were given to Jim.

Where did we get this crazy idea?

The story behind the bedpan cake

A few years ago while I helped at our church’s Awana program, I took advantage of some free time provided when my class played games to select some kitchen supplies from some tables of give-away items. I suppose they were left over from a church rummage sale. My older boys needed stuff for their college apartments.

Jim and another person visited in the foyer. Jim pointed to a horse-shoe shaped cake pan and asked, “Hey, Michelle, why don’t you take that pan?”

“I don’t need this pan. Besides, it looks like a bedpan to me,” I said.

He insisted I needed the pan.

I should have realized he was up to something, but alas, I have never suspected any of his pranks.

After making my selections, I toted them out to my van.

Jim, who performed the security duties that night, commented that I had returned from the parking lot awfully fast. To which I explained that the van was unlocked. (I’m sure you’re on to him by now. I remained oblivious as I raced back to my duties.)

Later at the end of the night, he approached me apologizing for all the jokes he pulled on me in the past. He told me about his repentance and asked forgiveness. I thought he acted strange but shrugged it off.

At home, I discovered the bedpan cake pan sitting on top of my other finds. I laughed all the way to the telephone. Jim answered with the speaker phone on. I know this because I could hear his wife laughing in the background. Plus she participated in the conversation. He denied planting this pan in my van, but we all know he is guilty of the charge.

We recall this memory often and still laugh over it.

The first cake

The first bedpan cake looked much different than the one pictured here. We added tootsie rolls and, I think, had yellow frosting. My daughter, Emily, helped me with decorating this second cake though we discussed at length how to do it. She mixed several food coloring drops to get that greenish-brown coloring.

When Jim received the cake, he admired the artistic flare before enjoying two pieces. It was chocolate, of course, because that is what his wife said his favorite kind of cake was.

One doesn’t often use the words bedpan and cake in the same sentence, but now you know why I did. Laughter makes the heart merry. When hard events present themselves, what a wonderful gift it is to laugh and just visit. Don’t wait for hard events though. Go out and make a bedpan cake just for the fun of it. Someone somewhere needs a laugh today.

Have you ever made a bedpan cake before? Share your story! If not, tell us another story of how you’ve extended a joke through the years.