Family Food for Feast and Feria

I had huge success for my lamb cake this Easter, and really I have to give all credit to Elizabeth Foss, since she shared her recipe on the Easter Menu discussion from the 4RealLearning Forums. I have a different cake mold than the Wilton version, but the recipe and directions worked out perfectly. I had no breakage, no floppy cake. The cake itself was firm but moist and tasty. The decorator icing was delicious...a bit on the sweet side, but that's typical for decorator icing. I used the No. 21 tip and made stars to recreate the fluffy lamb's wool. I used jellybeans for the eyes and mouth, dyed coconut green and sprinkled on the top of the base to recreate grass.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing your family's secrets. I'm reproducing the recipe so I can keep it for my records (every year I forget what I did the last time).

Pound Cake:

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.

I didn't need to double the recipe. The leftover batter was enough to fill one 10 inch layer to use as the base for the lamb. Next year I might double to make a layer cake. The pan cooked much more quickly than the lamb, so watch that carefully.

I didn't ice right away. From my decorating class I had the recommendation to wrap up the cake in many layers of plastic wrap and then freeze the cake. I do believe I was supposed to "crumb" the cake, which was to put a thin layer of frosting all over the cake before freezing, but I skipped that part. The freezing would make the cake firm for decorating and keep it moist.

Hazelnut Frosting

1/2 cup Shortening
1/2 cup Butter
5 cups Confectioner's Sugar
4 Tbsp. Frangelico (or more to get the right consistency)

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.

I did double this recipe and had only a little leftover. I LOVED the Frangelico addition. I think next time I might add a pinch of salt to cut the sweetness, but I'll have to think that one over.

I used decorator bags, which turned out to be hard for me to squeeze. Next year I'm going to try to use a Decorator, perhaps like the one from Pampered Chef, which will not require as much thumb movement.