For a number of years, I tried with much pain and effort, to make a lamb cake for Easter. Usually the batter didn't spread to fill the mold or it stuck to the pan and broke when I tried to remove it. This year Elizabeth posted a foolproof recipe for a delicious lamb cake, complete with hazelnut frosting. I decided to give it another try, forgoing the poppy seed cake that I usually make.
I baked the lamb cake early in the afternoon on Holy Saturday. Not only did it smell heavenly while it was baking but it emerged from the pan unscathed, just as Elizabeth promised. The cake takes most of a day to cool. I, being a bit of a last minute person, began to ice it at 2 a.m. on Easter morning, only to find that I did not have the icing decorating tips needed to make the curly lamb's wool. I then decided to frost it with a butterknife.
The end results are a delicious tasting cake that, through my own decorating fault, looks a bit, well...sheepish. As I began to take a photo of the cake to post, two year old Mary Kathryn commented, "Say cheese, doggie!"
Nevertheless, Elizabeth's lamb pound cake and icing is truly scrumptuous. Just don't try to frost it without decorating tips!
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Vanilla Pound Cake
Follow the Wilton instructions for baking to the letter, including the cooling instructions.
Here's the recipe for a pound cake that is dense enough to fill the nooks and crannies, stand up alone in the pan half, and hold the shape:
1 1/2 cups butter
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese
2 3/4 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Have all ingredients at room temperature.
Beat butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat eggs, one at a time. Sift flour and add to batter. Add vanilla; mix well.
Place batter into a greased and floured pan; follow Wilton baking instructions.
Double this recipe and you'll have plenty to completely fill the lamb pan and some leftover batter for a little cake.
Hazelnut Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Shortening
1/2 cup Butter
5 cups Confectioner's Sugar
4 TBS Frangelico (or more to get the right consistency)
Directions:
Cream butter and shortening with mixer for 3 minutes on high speed. Add Frangelico. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Mix on high speed for 5 minutes.
This frosting works to make star-swirls on the lamb. Use jelly beans and licorice for eyes and whiskers. Colored coconut on the plate is a nice touch for grass or just use Easter grass from baskets.
