Our test cook used special cake pans to bake this whimsical little sheep, and gave him jelly beans for a face and coconut icing for wool.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Symbol of spring makes ‘a very pretty cake’
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Here is the raw batter in two pans, one shaped like a lamb and one shaped l ike a rabbit.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Times Leader reader Barbara Hartnett of Swoyersville was kind enough to lend her vintage cake pans to the Times Leader test kitchen.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
It may look like a chocolate candy rabbit but it’s a chocolate cake.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
“When I look at that whimsical little face on my lamb cake,” I told the Times Leader taste testers earlier this week, “I just don’t want to cut into it.”
“I don’t think it looks whimsical,” columnist Bill O’Boyle said, suggesting “frightened” would be a better word.
“Mildly terrifying,” news editor Roger DuPuis said, relaying the opinion of one of his Facebook friends, moments after he’d posted a photo of my latest project in the Times Leader test kitchen.
“You guys are terrible; it’s a very pretty cake,” said our co-worker Lyndsay Bartos, who as a page designer surrounded by writers HAS to have developed the best eye.
When our laughter subsided, the discussion turned to how the cake tasted.
“I loved it,” Roger said.
“Very delicious and moist,” Bill said.
“I’m not the biggest fan of coconut,” reporter Margaret Roarty said. “But it’s good.”
“It’s so good,” reporter Hannah Simerson said, noting the flavor reminded her of sugar cookies her mother used to make.
Returning to the topic of the lamb shape, Lyndsay said, “It would be good not just for Easter but for a baby shower. You could put a pink ribbon around its neck.”
The story of the lamb cake began last week, when Times Leader reader Barbara Hartnett of Swoyersville sent an email reminding me of her offer to loan her vintage cake pans — the lamb and the bunny — so I could bake cakes shaped like these symbols of spring in time for Easter.
I used the pans, as well as Barbara’s mother’s recipes for cake and boiled icing, with a few exceptions.
In the batter, I replaced 1/2 cup of flour with cocoa so I could have a black sheep and a chocolate bunny cake instead of two vanilla cakes. Also, I used butter in place of Crisco in the batter because I’m a butter fan.
While I did use Crisco vegetable shortening in the icing, I also added coconut to give the lamb the appearance of wool. I didn’t ice the rabbit; instead I just added candles (an 8-0 plus 8 single candles) in honor of my mother’s 88th birthday.
She pronounced the cake “delicious” and loved it almost as much as the birthday dinner Mark cooked for her. You’ll eventually read about a recipe or two from that meal, I’m sure.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to buy rabbit or lamb cake pans of your own, you’ll find several sources online. And here are the recipes Barbara Hartnett supplied:
Bunny or Lamb Cake
Cream well:
1 cup Crisco
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups sugar
Add:
4 eggs; beat each separately
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
Alternate flour and baking powder mix with milk; beat well. Add a few drops milk of batter is too stiff. Batter will be heavy.
Grease mold on both sides and flour the side without the holes. Fill the side without the holes. Put top on and bake on cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. You will have enough batter for two lambs or two bunnies.
Boiled Icing
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoon flour
Boil to make sauce, then cool before adding:
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla.
Beat well.
