Better Late Than Never

Just because I've become a "C and E" Catholic doesn't mean I'm also turning into a "C and E" blogger!  But it sure looks like it, since the last time I posted was around Christmas and now I'm finally getting around to posting about my Easter Lamb Cake.  Oh well, as the title of this segment says, better late than never.

This was the second year in a row that I attempted to make, bake and decorate a lamb cake for Easter dinner.  And while the end results were acceptable, I will say that it took some finagling to get there.

As always, I ran over to my mom's house to pick up her 50-year-old metal lamb cake mold.  That thing is so study and heavy I'm confident it will survive a nuclear attack!  Knowing that this mold works best with a firm cake, my 10-year-old daughter and budding chef, Emily, and I went to work looking for a good pound cake recipe.  I used the one from the Betty Crocker Baking for Today  cookbook I received from a friend and former client, Mary Bartz (who was pretty much "Betty Crocker" for much of her career).

According to my mom, the proper way to make the cake is to pour batter into both halves, bake them separately and then assemble the two sides with frosting and toothpicks. However, I recently read an article in which an expert from Wilton Enterprises suggested to only fill one half with cake batter and tie the two halves of the mold together to form one solid cake.  A co-worker, Jessie, tried it that way and had great success.  I, unfortunately, tried it my mom's way and had to really work at leveling the two halves in order to get them to stick together.  Half of the lamb's head even broke off and had to be surgically attached!

Once Emily and I got that taken care of, we whipped up some homemade frosting and started decorating.  It's wonderful how frosting can cover up a multitude of mistakes -- kinda like a good makeup foundation.  Chocolate chips made the eyes and we gave him/her a red ribbon scarf to complete the project.  And while our lamb may not have looked like a perfect creation, no one seemed to mind when they were eating it.  Seriously, it was delicious and I will do it again next year . . . with a few minor alterations!  Heck, this could also work for baby showers, birthday parties for 4H meetings.  Use your imagination and have fun.