The way I see it, we need a little spring. As they say, reality is something you rise above, so let’s do that today! Let’s rise above! Get a cup of tea Girlfriends, turn on the MUSICA, put your face close to the screen so even your peripheral vision is enveloped in bloom and enjoy your. . .
It’s spring fever. You don’t quite know what it is you want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so bad. ♥ The Adorable Mark Twain who knew.
Can you smell the fresh ocean air up from the harbor, still cold, filled with flowery scents of spring? Whoosh! The wind blows through the petals. Wrap your sweater a little tighter. Mmmm, we are so lucky. Don’t you just love the internet?!
We can see last year’s weeping cherry trees in full bloom even on a snowy day . . . makes you want it so bad, your heart just aches for it. It’s coming Girlfriends. The waiting is what makes it so wonderful. ♥
Right now we are still having our most delicious dinners of deep dark and delicious homemade Chicken Soup — but today we are looking for COLOR and so it’s time out for . . .
We love to do the chicken dance — here’s my recipe for Carrot Cupcakes which I think you will want to save. SO good, filled with fruit and nuts, lots of shreded carrots, pineapple and coconut. Cream Cheese frosting. The recipe will also make a three-layer cake ~ with so much batter you will have extra cupcakes, enough for your spring-starved girlfriends, chicken hearts and wolfmen too.
We just got in a new batch of these festive easy-to-make kits for darling dancing chicken cupcake toppers in case you’d like one.
And we still have the Cupcake Garlands that Janie made for us. It’s these happy colors I love to see. But you know, I’m on a lamb kick right now.
They are just so darn cute. They baaaa “Spring.”
And here’s my newest concoction. We found perfect old-fashioned Lamb Cake Molds for our web store . . . I made the cake using my Grandma’s homemade Lemon Daisy Cake recipe because it makes a firm cake, almost a pound cake but not quite, a cake that isn’t too crumbly and holds together. But a box cake and frosting will work too and I’m not against anything that makes a lovely smell come from the oven (there’s one boxed white cake I’ve used that has confetti colors in it that I think might be perfect for lamb cake) ~ the directions that come with the pan tell you to make it using less liquid. ~ in case you feel a need for speed. I’ll show you how to make the Lemon Daisy Cake, and I’ll put the full recipe at the end of this post so you can print it out.
So here we go. First tip: Successful unmolding of your cake is paramount. The way to do that (for any molded cake) is this: Melt a couple tablespoons of Crisco and brush it into ever nook and cranny of your mold. The mold should be cool when you do it so the oil will stick.
Also, take the time to flour your pans. Just shake flour over the oil until it sticks everywhere and shake out any extra. Notice we have kitchen twine, toothpicks and wooden skewers? You will need these … as you’ll see later. Put your prepared pan on a cookie sheet with the lamb face down. Preheat your oven to 375º ~ feel your kitchen getting warm and cozier by the minute. Pop an old movie into the player . . . I watched/listened to Gosford Park while I cooked — here’s the MUSICA from it …
This recipe and lamb cake is really so easy! All ingredients should be at room temperature. Two sticks of butter and two cups of sugar go into a large mixing bowl.
Put four roughly measured cups of flour into your sifter and sift three times . . . then measure out 3 cups. You want to measure after sifting. Any extra flour goes back into your container. Put the sifted flour back into the sifter, add one TBSP baking powder and 1/4 tsp. salt and sift again two more times. Use my waxed paper method for sifting unless you have a method you like better.
Allow all petty pets to watch your every move.
Now cream the softened butter and sugar together with an electric mixer . . .
. . . until light colored and fluffy
Then, one at a time, add the yolks of four eggs (save the whites in another bowl), beating well after each.
Once the eggs are incorporated, sift in dry ingredients by thirds alternating with buttermilk ~ little bit of flour, a little bit of milk, repeat~ beat until smooth after each third.
I like the old-fashioned tangy flavor the buttermilk gives this cake, but if you are at home and all you have is regular milk, that will do just fine.
Stir in the grated rind of two lemons . . . so easy to do with the wonderful Microplane Graters (← let me demonstrate!) . . . Miracle things no kitchen should be without. Like little razor blades for fast easy no-more-knuckle-in-the-food cooking.
Beat your reserved egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the cake, and voila, Daisy Cake batter is done.
Fill the face side of your mold (you’ll be able to tell which side to fill because the other side has a tiny steam-hole in it). Big tip #2: Head-falling-off can occur, it’s a possibility you will want to avoid from the get go. Because if it does, you’ll try to glue it back on with frosting. Which puts a wide messy crumbly lump around the lamb’s neck. While you’re busy sticking the head back on, the ears fall off. It’s terrible. I’ve made that mistake, but no more. Now I am stick woman. Toothpicks for the ears and wooden skewers for the neck.
Then I tie the mold together with kitchen string, just in case. If, for some reason the batter tries escape out the sides, I’m ready. We want a perfectly molded little lamb here, on the first try. Pop the cake in the oven an let it fill your toasty kitchen with fragrance of lemon-baking heaven.
Set your timer for 55 minutes and take a look outside and see what’s going on.
There’s bound to be something.
After the cake comes out and is cooling, you can pull out your Summer Book and find my recipe for Old-Fashioned Boiled Frosting on p. 109. But just in case you don’t have that book, here’s the recipe . . .
This is another easy recipe that’s like science magic. You need a candy thermometer like you see here. I have it hooked on the side of a small heavy-bottomed pan that already has a third-cup of water in it . . . I’m adding a cup of sugar.
Then 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar and a pinch of salt gets stirred in ~ put the pan over high heat and boil without stirring until mixture reaches 240°.
While that’s going on, beat two egg whites until stiff.
When the sugar liquid is hot enough, pour it in a thin stream into your egg whites beating all the while, and watch it get thick, white and fluffy . . .
Just like this! Look at that! You are a genius!
When the buzzer goes off, Ta-Daaa your lamb cake is done. Pull it out of the oven, and now is where your patience must never come to an end. You have to wait until he is totally cool before you set him up to frost. You can cut the string, take off the top part of the mold, let him sit like that a while. Put the mold piece back on, turn it over, and do the same thing. Until he is completely cool.
Meanwhile you’ll have made your frosting . . . swipe the middle of your cake platter with a wide swath of frosting so the lamb has something to anchor him in standing position.
This is what we’ve waited for. He’s up! He came right out of the pan with no help. Look at him! He’s perfect. I didn’t have to do a thing but turn the pan into my hand and set him into the frosting smear. But then, how to frost him was my next question. I wanted to see if I could come up with something a little bit different than the way I usually did it (with raisin nose and chocolate chip eyes), make him more real. I needed inspiration and I knew just where to get it.
I pulled out the little book we bought in a bookstore in Ambleside in England filled with lamb pictures, all the different breeds.
I thumbed through it and chose this guy. That’s what I wanted my lamb to look like. Within reason.
So I started applying the frosting. I couldn’t hold the camera and frost at the same time, but there is no real trick in the frosting ~ it all goes pretty easily. For the corners like under his chin or around the ears, just put a good lump of frosting on the very end of your spatula or wide knife and plunk it right where you want it, spreading from there. You can wipe off the plate with a damp paper towel when you are finished.
Hello just-born lamb. Of course Lemon cake and coconut go together perfectly, and lambs need wool, so here is. If you press the coconut in a little bit, it keeps him from looking too hairy.
Just as sweet from the back. In the past I’ve decorated the plate with green-tinted coconut (like Easter grass) and jelly beans, and egg-shaped frosted cookies . . . but I was taking this cake to friends for dinner and it isn’t Easter quite yet, so I decided to leave it plain and my version of homemade-elegant.
So darling, always the cutest thing on the table at any party. (Just pulled out my lamb vase too — almost time to fill him with forsythia cuttings! I collected a few more lamb vases when I could find them on our cross-country trip in case you “need” one too . . .)
I wrapped him up, lamb cake-to-go-go. So that’s about it. I hope you enjoyed our springtime retreat and are all inspired to make a lamb cake of your own. And if so, you might need a lamb pan, and that is what I can help with.
Because I washed my lamb cake mold, dried it and tied it with a ribbon, and here it is, all freshly imbued with successful lamb-cake baking DNA ~ and I hope you will leave me a comment at the bottom of this post, because if you do, you will be entered in my drawing, and he can be your very own. In the next few days, our darling girl Vanna will pull one of your names out of her Easter Bonnet (the one with all the frills), and one of you will be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade. Or, at least you will have a new, slightly used, lamb cake mold. ♥
Now one other thing I wanted to ask you. Do you have this book? Because if you do, you will know how inspiring it is. I found this one years ago in a used bookstore and have loved it ever since. It’s my go-to, never-gets-old classic; a small, 
inviting garden book, where every word is a pearl. Planning a garden takes a little time, and this book will help you get in the mood. You feel as you should when you read it, as part of the earth, part of the ebb and flow of the seasons and the ancient practices of sowing and reaping from the precious green earth that God has given us. You can smell the warm dirt, taste the crisp, still-warm-from-the garden organic vegetables, hear the bees buzzing in the rosemary. That’s how you feel when you read this little book. ♥
The charm doesn’t end with the wonderful words of Mary Mason Campbell, it continues with darling drawings by Tasha Tudor. Kitchen Gardens was published in 1971 and describes the art of gardening as the simple and wonderful thing that it is.
And this book is for you too. I have two, and you get one. I signed it and when I find out the name of the winner, I will put their name in this lovely old book and off they will go, Lamb Cake pan and Kitchen Gardens, hopefully to make someone’s day. I have to say, you deserve to win after reading all this! It’s getting long — I’m so sorry!
And now, one last thing, just so you can see ~ this is where we were going for dinner the night I made the lamb cake . . . Isn’t it pure fairy tale? Our friends Arnie and Paula live here. When I see visions such as this, I think maybe winter’s not really that bad! Here’s your recipe:
LEMON DAISY LAMB CAKE
You will need melted Crisco and flour to prepare mold, plus two wooden skewers and two toothpicks for lamb.
- 2 sticks butter (1 c.), room temp.
- 2 c. sugar
- 3 c. sifted cake flour
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 4 eggs, separated, room temp.
- 1 c. buttermilk
- zest of two lemons
Grater, in case you need one . . .
Preheat oven to 375°. Paint the inside of your mold with melted Crisco, sprinkle with flour and shake out extra. Cream softened butter and sugar together with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Measure your dry ingredients: sift approx. 3 c. flour three times before measuring out three cups and putting them back into the sifter (any extra flour just goes back into your container) ~ add baking powder and salt to sifter with flour in it and sift two more times. Set aside.
Add egg yolks, one at a time, to butter-sugar mixture; beat well after each ~ put the egg whites in another bowl.
Sift in flour mixture by thirds, alternating with buttermilk, beating until smooth after each addition. Stir in lemon zest. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold them into the batter.
Fill face part of lamb mold (the side that doesn’t have the hole in it) full and put it on a cookie sheet. Lay toothpicks in centers of lamb ears, put clipped wooden skewers or a popsicle stick in center of neck down to body for support. Press them down slightly into batter. Put on the top of the mold and tie it together with string. Put the cookie sheet with the lamb cake into preheated oven and bake 55 minutes. Remove from oven, cut string, allow lamb to cool 15 min; remove top, cool longer, turn it over, remove other side of mold, allow it to cool competely before frosting.
You will have extra batter — enough for one 8″ single layer cake, or several cupcakes. With my extra batter, I made a bunny cake… with a vintage bunny cake mold I found somewhere on my travels. Lambies and chickies and bunnies . . . oh my!
CLASSIC OLD-FASHIONED BOILED FROSTING
You will need a candy thermometer for this. Pour 1/3 c. water into a small, heavy-bottomed sauce pan, then stir in 1 c. sugar, 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar and a pinch of salt. Hook the thermometer on the side of the pan making sure the tip of it is in the mixture. Boil until the mixture reaches 240°. Meanwhile beat 2 egg whites until stiff. Pour the 240° syrup over the whites in a thin stream, beating constantly until thick and glossy. Lay a wide strip of frosting down the middle of an oval serving plate. Tip the lamb cake out of the pan into your hand and set it in the strip of frosting to anchor it. Frost the lamb; pat and sprinkle coconut onto sides. Press coconut in slightly to keep the lamb from looking too hairy. Voila, he is done, and you are amazing! Happy Spring Girlfriends! I think I have delighted you (in the immortal words of Jane Austen) long enough! ♥
Thanks for offering such a lovely give-away! The lamb cake and the book are both so charming.
My pleasure . . . you’re the first to see it Ginger!
I LOVE your blog and love this lamb cake mold! I love your cozy life too. Thank you for your blog and thank you for the opportunity to win this!
Jennifer, in Boise, Idaho
Thanks for being here Jennifer!
Thank you Susan for the beautiful spring inspiration, your garden is beautiful. I pray every season that what I plant won’t die in our harsh Ohio winters. I have to admit I am not a green thumb but I try and I do have some successes like my beautiful peonies, my favorite flower. The lamb cake is adorable, and I love the bunny mold also. I am partial to bunnies because I have a 7 year old lion-head rabbit that my daughter just had to have! She’s in Cleveland now and “Frankie the bunny” is still here with me….love him to death and I don’t think I would let her have him back anyhow! I am aching for spring and am so glad I checked your blog again this morning….thank you!!!!!
We’re almost there . . . if we can just hold on a few more weeks!
I know that the Bible says “To everything there is a season” but.. I have had enough of the season of winter and am so looking forward to the Spring!! Thanks for the HOPE.
Can’t wait to try and Lamb Cake Recipe. My mouth is watering already.
Stay warm.
I am drooling over the recipes….and the thought of Spring….and the adorable Lamb mould and especially the kitchen garden book too! You have my heart beating wildly at the possibilities for Easter and Spring and into Summertime! It is time for this crazy winter to be over. I am tired of being cosy and warm inside……I want to begin my gardening and finish painting the house….and to see everything begin to sprout and bloom. Ahhhhhh! You have made it come alive today. I was feeling a bit on the blue side this week, but now I know why…it is time to think Spring and getting out and about in the outdoors. All of my nightime walks with my cat ( he is chicken to go outside alone, so I have to take him for a walk every day or night) are not enough to kick the winter blah! Thank you for this wonderful blog! 🙂
That’s so sweet that you “walk” your cat. Lucky cat. (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats)
Love that sweet little lamb cake. My 1 year old daughter loves saying, “baa” when she sees sheep or goats. Imagine if she could eat one!
This makes me remember the little Lamb Cakes my Mother made us children for our birthday parties….. Both my sister & I had Spring Birthdays, & always looked forward to our little Lamb Cakes…. Eventually we had a 3rd baby girl sister- but she was a Winter Baby. She loved OUR cakes so much that she too chose a touch of Spring as her treasured Birthday Cake every year!
Love the lamb and love the old book (one of my favorite things, always) and love the pictures of your beautiful house in the snow!
What an adorable little cake! And I could get lost in that book for hours! I can just smell that cake now cooking in my kitchen! UMMM!
Love this post, love the cake and I love and collect Tasha Tudor books. Thanks for the chance to add to my collection.
Ohhh boy, a fresh homemade lamb cake. I can taste it now. Ummmm. Smell those flowers. Spring, Easter, Lamb Cake, Gardening! What could be better. Thanks for sharing, please sign me up.
I can see it is cake-baking time! We have so much snow here along Lake Michigan..with brave(?) souls walking out onto the ice between the piers this past Sunday!…(Three fell through and were rescued!)…It’s amazing what a little sunshine will prompt you to do!….Anyway, back to cake-baking…(Here’s an aside…I’m always up for frosting!)…This lamb mold..and the results of using it..are precious, precious, precious!….Please enter me in the drawing!…Excitement abounds!
Oh-So-Adorable!!! I probably would have A LOT of practice, because I don’t think I would ever get that little lamby out of the pan… If I win, I don’t think you will see any finished cakes. LOL!
It POPPED out. I didn’t have to cut around it or anything. There is no way it can not come out for you. I’m pretty sure 🙂
I love your Lamb Cake and the beautiful, inspirational pictures of Spring! I think I need one of those cookbooks also! I can’t even imagine a cookbook with Tasha Tudor’s artwork in it! Love it! Your blog always puts a smile on my face! Thank you!
The lamb cake is precious and the garden book looks like a treasure. It always brightens my day when I get to read your blog! Thank you Susan for being you!
I absolutely LOVE your blog. It’s always my pick-me-up when I need it during the day. As Anne of Green Gables would say, “We are kindred spirits.” I love reading Gladys Taber books (reading one now), vintage-type “things”, England cottages (built one two years ago), etc. The lamb cake is too cute and the book reminds me of the Gladys books. Hope you, Joe and the kitties have a wonderful day!
Your lamb cake is cute enough to keep forever but I’m sure it is delicious, too and so must be eaten. So clever of you to brace his little neck and ears. Tasha Tudor is my favourite artist next to you. I had the good fortune to come across her “Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes” book at an antique market. It was published in 1947 and I was thrilled to find it. So, a lambie cake pan and a gardening book illustrated by Tasha Tudor give-away is wonderful. A bird sings in winter because he knows spring will come. And so we must have faith and be patient, too. Thank you, Susan.
Plain and simple, Susan, you’re just a fun gal! Now I don’t have to feel guilty about eating lamb 🙂 What a wonderful giveaway!
And thanks for the beautiful picture of your snowy home. It’s now my computer’s screen saver.
I’m “low tech” instead of “high tech.” How did you do that? (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats.” I’d love to save the picture of the snow falling on Susan’s beautiful house. (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats)
LOVED the book! I have always love Tasha Tudors illustrations but especially now,because last year we got our 18 year old daughter a corgi she had been wanting since she was 12.So we try to collect books with corgis in them, like Tasha Tudor’s corgiville series.Corgi’s have such character and are such fun.I now understand why Tasha Tudor had so many,although one is all we can handle right now 😉 .It’s all our cat can handle too 😉
I adore Corgi’s too, they seem like little coffee tables to me, with their flat wide backs, you could have tea on one of them if they would hold still long enough!
I’ve always wondered if anyone who has a Corgi has named it Elizabeth? I’ll explain why if anyone doesn’t know why “Elizabeth.” If you had two, you could name one Elizabeth, & the other Phillip. Just a thought. (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats)
I was wondering how you would decorate the lamb–Brilliant–It is so cute! Thanks for the drawing and the recipes. This is one, I’m sure, we ALL would love to be drawn for. My mother had this pan but alas it is long gone from when my siblings cleared out her kitchen…Yes, I’m telling myself that spring is coming but we are under a “blizzard warning” starting tonight, all through tomorrow. I’m trying to think “warm, cozy, etc.” Think I’ll plan to bake your hot milk cake and open a jar of cherry pie filling for supper tomorrow night. I’m thinking I’ll try making your cake recipe above, the lemon one, in a bundt pan…saw branches of Forsythia for sale at Trader Joe’s–think I’ll pick some up the next time we go…
Very cheerful, love forsythia!
If we had a house, I’d plant a bush of it just for spring clipping! But, alas, in the townhouse we can’t plant anything in the ground. Hmmm…wonder how forsythia would do in a very large pot? 🙂 We’re getting the big storm today–5-11″ of snow predicted. Swiss steak in the crockpot and I’m thinking of baking something. Have you ever made the lemon cake where you use lemon jello, oil, eggs to a cake mix, bake it in a 9 x 13″ pan, and then while it is hot from the oven, poke holes in it with a big fork and glaze it with a mix of fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar which runs down into the holes? You sort of put me in the mood for lemon-something…maybe as long as the oven is available… 🙂
Boy do we have spring fever here in SW MO, warm and sunny, just begging us to get outside! There’s a limit to what we can do since winter is coming back in a couple of days. But your post made my case even worse. I have loved Kitchen Gardens for years. After I found the hardback, I began the search for a paperback. I cut the paperback up (gasp) and decoupaged Tasha’s wonderful art to my garden bucket. Just a white 5 gallon bucket that I tote all my gardening paraphernalia outside in. My hardback blew away in our tornado, but my garden bucket survived somehow, I still use it. The lamb cake is just the thing for an Easter table centerpiece. Whew! You are just full of great thinkin’ starters today. Thank you.
Susan….such a long, lovely post, along with the “snowing” picture postcard of your beautiful house. Our neighbors have an Easter egg hunt and fajita cook-off (ok, I know, but it is Texas after all) contest every year. The lamb cake would be a winner in the dessert category, I’m sure! Thanks for all you do. Rachel
I know spring is coming! A tree full of puffed up robins were in my weeping cherry tree this morning. Poor things! Thank you for the generous give aways once again. Ethel and I still talk about our day with you and call each other immediately when a new blog is posted! Hi to Joe n the kitties. Stay warm and dry.
Love to hear that Lucy!
Oh…. do I dare try a Lamb Cake??? you make it look so easy, Its so adorable and the grandkids would be soooo impressed. You always inspire me Susan LAMB CAKE here I come!!
You can DO it!
Oh my goodness! That cook book is incredible! If I don’t win it, I hope I can find it used somewhere. I just love Tasha Tudor (almost as much as I love you!)!
Greetings, Susan, from SoCal where Winter skipped by us this year! Glad to see the hope of Spring for you!
Lovely post. Lovemthat cake pan. I just.love sheep. As I sit here typing is I can see the field behind us full of Sheep and lambs. It always helps me get thru these last few weeks of cold winter seeing them frolicking around out there. Come on spring. 🙂
Hello Susan……I have always loved your books since you had first started writing them…they are beautiful! My mom gave all of them to me as presents throughout the years. More recently, I found your website and blog, and have speed read through all of your Willards and old blog postings….then I was sad I got through reading them! Now I watch every day for another posting, so please, keep up the beautiful entries. After reading everything, I wanted to mention I feel like you are a long lost family member, and/or definitely a girlfriend. My aunts, mom, and I have so much in common with you….my mom has the same love of vintage glassware (and then so do I because of mom), and dishtowels. My one aunt lines up small animals and Beatrix Potter animals on her window sill….she is the only one that I ever saw do that until I saw your blogs! My other Aunt is a quilter. My grandma that has since passed away left a love of Gladys Taber with me, because she had given me some of her books, and loved Gladys Taber herself. And now today is another one….I had been planning on replying to one of your blogs to ask if you had ever heard of Tasha Tudor, because my grandma had loved her as well (my aunt with the animals on the window sill has many of Tasha Tudor’s books in a display cabinet meant for decorations!) and gave me books of hers too, and I thought that you would like to hear about Tasha and look for her books all filled with pictures of animals…….and you already know about her! With so many similarities, I feel like you are one of us! So that you know, this girlfriend looks forward to hearing from you 🙂 Thank you for everything, Holly
What a lovely family of creative women you have Holly!
Once again you had me glued to my computer to read every word you wrote. Your blog brings such joy to my life. I enjoy the winter and I loved that last photo of your friend’s house. I am always ready when spring finally gets around. I am moving in a new house this weekend and I cannot wait to take some of the decorating ideas you have shared to make this rental my own.
Thanks.
Happy Decorating Elmina!
Lemon and Coconut…….Yummy ! Your little lamb cake is adorable !
Great idea for the structural support !
We are above zero in Ontario today…….YAY !
Thank you !
What a wonderful giveaway for Spring! My mother-in-law used to make this cake every Easter (but not with a black face! Love that!). Not sure where her mold is but I have fond memories of that special Easter cake. Ah….the sound of birds! Cannot wait to hear that again! It is 44 degrees here in COLD Wisconsin! Cannot believe it after our consistent sub-zero temps for most of January and February! Hope of things to come! xo
I love your posts, Susan. Many times I call my mom (who is in a nursing home) and read them to her. She especially loved hearing your wonderful Shirley Temple tribute. When I was little, and there was a Shirley Temple movie on TV, my mom would freeze coke in ice cube trays, and give us each (4 sisters) frozen coke cubes to munch on while watching Shirley sing and dance our cares away. 🙂
I love this cake tin Susan. I am orginally from England so can relate to your love of lambs. They are everywhere in the UK!! I’m crossing my fingers, as the book looks lovely too. Thank you for the chance to enter.
hello Susan and hello girlfriends. been busy shoveling muck out of the barn these past few days, we do that to keep it from flooding into the barn, its nasty work but it has to be done. my grandma used to make us a lamb cake every Easter, they were so cute, and she always made them look different, like the different breeds of sheep. I will never forget one year when she put the lamb cake on the side table and when we returned from the egg hunt, the head was missing. never knew how that happened, but we strongly suspected the dogs had a hand in it, oops meant a paw in it. still raining here, but it looks like it is easing up now, the sun is poking through and the hens are happy… more sunshine to enjoy. must be close to spring because something sure has me sneezing a lot lately. good thing I stocked up on tissues and bought some new hankies to use. I don’t know about most people but I prefer hankies, kinder to the nose and tissues make my poor nose turn red and sore. well back out to check on the hens, peep season is here and the baby chicks have arrived at the grange, I love going to see them, all that peeping, and of course those adorable fuzzy little chicks, along with the baby ducks and the baby geese and turkeys. all so adorable. my order will arrive soon, Leghorns, and I even ordered some new ducks, Swedish blues, 2 males and 2 females. and when and if the grange is ordering them, I will get some more turkeys. its definitely peep season here, time to clean out the nursery and get it ready for the new arrivals. have a great day everyone. hugs…… 🙂
good morning Susan, Hello girlfriends!! been busy setting up our nursery for the new arrivals, our order for the leghorns is in at the grange, lots of new lil baby chicks will be coming home with us this weekend so I have the nursery all set up for them. I hope they get my odred in soon for the Swedish blues ( 4 ducks) and I went ahead ordered for the first hatching of turkey chicks, even ordered some Rouen ducks to keep Dongo happy and I went so far as to order some geese as well. can’t wait for spring, time to get the rockers back out on the front porch and get the greenhouse set up to start our seeds in for the garden, want lots and lots of string beans and sugar snap peas this summer. love to sit on the front porch and snap beans, shell peas and watch the tractor parade go by and the lawnmower brigade go by down to the gas station and back up again, my favorite summer entertainment. heard we have a new neighbor down the road who is raising goats and making cheese from the milk, wonder if I can swap her some eggs for a couple of cheeses now and then??? hmmm. well off to set up the greenhouse and finish with setting up the nursery. its officially peep season, and I want a busy barnyard this summer. have a great day everyone…… hugs……. 🙂
Because I have an April birthday, my mother always made very Spring-y cakes for me. There was always coconut involved, sometimes tinted green to resemble new grass. This mold is the most perfect, charming way for me to carry on the tradition, just in time for my (gasp) 50th birthday. (When did that happen?)
Thank you Susan for the lovely burst of Spring. This was so much needed after many of us have been enduring such a hard winter. Your blog is always a warm sunny place to visit. I would love the chance to win your cute little lamb pan and herb book.
Can’t wait for Spring, too!!!
Hi Susan,
Love the cake! It looks amazing. Have you read Susan Hill’s book, ‘The Magic Apple Tree’? It is a wonderful account of her life in an Oxfordshire village through the seasons. It is beautifully written ( as all her books are) and I try to read the corresponding chapters as each season changes here in the UK. I think you’d love it!
What a lovely post. Thank you for always brightening my day!
That cake pan is too cute! I’m getting excited for spring and Easter and all the adorable stuff that comes with it, I think a sheep cake would look darling in the middle of the Easter table! 🙂
Does this little lamb eat ivy? Your lamb cake reminds me of the years that my mother made bunny rabbit shaped cake for my birthday…complete with a layer of coconut for his fuzzy hair..I love how you frosted this special fella..with a face so real that you should so the cake slicing from the backside…
My exact thought Laura. Face down!
Dear Susan,
Always a pleasure to wake up and see a new blog from you. I look at it first; before any emails. The lamb is adorable and I’ll make it for Easter. That is, if I am the winner of the lamb mold. If not, off to your web store for me.
The lambie cake is adorable, with all its coconut fleece. I can see it being the hit of any meal or teatime. I swear it is about to baa for its mama.
I was trying to recall why the illustrator, Tasha Tudor, sounded familiar so I cheated and searched her name. Of course! She did the wonderful illustrations for “The Secret Garden”, that fabulous classic story. Your friends’ home does look rather like a storybook one.
A lamb cake was always my great-grandmother’s contribution to Easter dinner.
Yesterday was a promise of spring here in the Midwest. Amazing what a warm, sunny day will do for the spirit. Would love to own a copy of Kitchen Gardens. I used to borrow it from the public library with regularity. Throw my name into the hat for spring!
The cake looks divine! The mold is adorable and the glimpses of spring encouraging! We are just leaving Victoria b.c. Where I purchased my first bridgewater and stocked up on my Murchies tea! Lovely visit !
Oh what a lovely post. I so enjoyed listening to the birds singing while the snow and sleet are actually falling outside my window. I admit I am anxious for Springtime. It is always a trick to actually enjoy the season we are in the midst of without wishing for the next one. The lamb cake is adorable and must have been a big hit at dinner. What a wonderful giveaway you are offering. The winner will be a lucky-duck.
the lamb cake is darling! and what a great idea to keep his/her head on straight!
You have such great posts, I love reading them and get to know you via the posts.
(A former Massachusetts gal.)
Oh Susan!! I love the Lamb cake! He’s so cute! My grandkids would get the biggest kick out of him! Thanks for the chance to win him! I also enjoyed the pictures of you making him. Wish I had a hunk right now!
The pictures you post of your beautiful winter and spring make me wonder why i live in a place that has no seasons at all! It’s down to 69 right now but yesterday it was 83 degrees in the house and we turned on the AC! Such strange weather for this time of year! I long for snowflakes and crocus.
Your little lamb cake is adorable, almost too cute to eat- but i he must taste delicious!!!
Thank you Susan for making my lunchtime, once again, an enjoyable part of my day!
xox
deb
I do believe you have a touch of Spring Fever! Just shut my eyes for a second and thought I could smell the blossoms. Loved the post, come back soon. You do have a wonderful life, lucky you.
Anticipating a flurry of replies for this darling pan. We too had one at home and my Mom used to cover the dish with fresh daisies. Somewhere along the line the back got lost and we had flat lambies for many years. I lost the sister-pull for the surviving half, so would love to get my own. It would be so sweet to pass on the tradition to my daughter in San Diego. She would figure out how to surround him with palm trees!
Lambie is adorable but I am LOVING that bunny mold. I’ll have to keep my eyes open when I’m treasure hunting to find one. Thanks for the Spring Fever Fix.
what a fun post. now i really can’t wait for spring and i agree that all the winter weather makes spring that much better! one reason i like living where there are 4 seasons. i have ordered my seeds so i’m ready 🙂
i remember my mother-in-law making one of the lamb cakes every easter. maybe i will try it also. you gave such good instuctions.
thanks you
patti
Swwoooonnnnn! Love the little lambie mold! How cute is that with the “wool” all over!!??
The book is a treasure! Last week we had over a foot of snow and today, gulp, it is 60-degrees! The world is mud-li-cous!
Have a wonderful day dreaming of dirt, seeds, and GREEN!
Hi Susan! What a wonderful cake! And the book! I love vegetable gardening books, but what makes this one especially delightful to me is that it is illustrated by Tasha Tudor!!! I have been collecting her books for about 15 years…books she has written and illustrated, books about her, her cookbook, etc…I have never seen this book. I think my favorite thing about your post is the photo you took of your friends home in the snow. So magical looking! I am so not tired of winter this year, it is ridiculous! I don’t know why, but I am really enjoying all the brisk cold, and the snow. My little boy and I love to go out for walks at night, when it’s snowing, or when there’s snow on the ground. We built snowmen on Valentine’s Day, and sent the photos to all our friends and family wishing them “Snowy Valentine Greetings!” Don’t know if I can post a photo here, but will try to send it to you, too. Have a great day!
Spring fever is definitely here, what a lovely long post from you today, it helps so much! I’ve been reading reading reading books by Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain this winter – I know from your past writings how much you love him too – and so I read your quote from him at the top of this post with a little start of happiness…
Even in the very middle of California we are anxious for spring and the lamb cake makes it seem closer! I sent my brother in Alaska the great Mark Twain quote about “wanting Spring soooo bad” just to help him also. Thanks for everything.
Martha in Fresno
The beautiful pictures of a Springtime that is on the way, delicious recipes and now a giveaway? How wonderful! Whether I win or not I will be certain to try the recipes for lemon cake, frosting and carrot cupcakes. I am supposed to make some desserts for church this weekend and these sound perfect!
Oh, Susan, the sun is shining in Indiana today, and this Mary Oliver poem was waiting for me in my inbox: “Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.” And then your blog arrived, too! Such a happy day full of lambs and books, and the sunshine of friends, near and far. Thank you!
I can just imagine how wonderful your kitchen smells! Smells of baking make the snow melt away! Cozy, cozy, cozy! Thanks so much.
I have never made a molded cake but this one looks cute and delicious! Thank you for the helpful hint of using toothpicks and skewers to secure areas that are prone to break off when popping the cake from a pan. Would love to read the garden book. Thanks for adding cheer to my day, Sylvia
That has to be the cutest spring cake ever! Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures.
The cake is THE CUTEST! I can just picture the nieces and nephews wanting to eat it all up!!! And the book with a cup of tea would make a perfect afternoon. Thanks so much Susan!
Such a delightful post, full of lovely sounds and charming photos of lamby cake-in-the-making! Spring truly is just around the corner. I’m in Wichita Kansas and we hit 60F yesterday!
Thank you, Susan, for your lovely way of being in the world.
Ahhhh, just what I needed…a good dose of what I consider the real world here on this blog. My cabin fever that had started to give way to mansion fever, has now morphed into spring fever. Seems like my inspiration/creative valve gets stuck shut when I’ve been away from the blog for too long. Arnie and Paula’s house looked so charming all lit up in the snow…inspires me to make the best of the rest of the winter though, as its beauty will soon be past. Maybe I need to think about how cozy and spring go together. Your lamb cake is too cute for words Susan, and the recipe for Lemon Daisy Cake looks delish. Spring is definitely in the air, spirits are lifting. Someone will be receiving a lovely gift…a nice kick start for a beautiful new season.
Sorry to bother you again Susan (I know this will be a busy post for you), but I forgot to ask about your owl timer. Do you remember where you got him? My daughther adores owls (it’s red, the color in her kitchen), and I know she’d love to have one. (Hopefully it’s not something you purchased 12 years ago).
Adorable and inspiring and uplifting, just like all your posts. Your friends’ fairytale cottage just about did me in! Pure magic, so of course, you belong there. Waiting with lovely anticipation for the Emma Rose and Bee mug to arrive in your store. Looking forward to it and imagining myself sipping tea in the garden this summer is half the fun!
How adorable! Makes me want Spring to come quickly! Yum Lemon lamb cake, so Easterly. Thanks for your offers!
So adorable, Susan! My girls would love this for Easter. Thanks for sending a little Spring our way.
Susan,
I have emailed you several times with no response so I will try again. I loved your newest book on England. Went to London but now want to go on another adventure to the Cotswolds!! I collect Tasha Tudor books and love her art!! I hope that I am in the drawing for this book and cake mold!! As a new convert to your site, I am enthralled with your attitude and art.
Susan what an adorable cake – yummy too! You have made me a lamb-lover. Pier 1 has the cutest set of tiny glass lambs – 3 white and 1 black. I couldn’t resist!
Thanks for thinking of us – the blog. . . NEVER too long!
That is so cute! I would love to give a lamb cake a try. No lambs here, too dry for good pasture, but lots on the web to sigh over. Back in the upper 50’s, then it will get cold and snow then back up to sun, so its hard to get spring fever here, its nice a lot of the time. I’d actually like your deep snow and pretty houses and birds in the trees. But spring is nice too. Thanks for the chance!
Your posts always make me smile … both words and pictures. 🙂 Springtime is my favorite! happy spring!
What a precious cake! Lemon and coconut, what could be more perfect together?
I live in the South, but we have just had the last of our unusual ice and snow melt this week – yesterday it was Springtime warm and the horses got to go outside finally and bounce around, well, like lambs!
Hi Susan!
What a wonderful pre-Spring idea – garden book for dreaming & cake to eat with tea! I’d love to win – thanks for the chance.
Terry in Iowa
Good morning Susan and to all Girlfriends everywhere ~~~
I just loved the cupcake banner! So much so that I went shopping and bought myself one. I’m so ready for spring! As soon as I receive it in the mail, I’ll hang it up. Then, time for buy a bouquet of daffadils from the store!
Your lamb cake looked so good! If I weren’t trying to lose a couple inches or so, I’d make it in a hurry! It will be so much fun to see who wins the lamb cake pan and also the garden book. Could it possibly be me this time? Hmmmm 🙂
I just noticed that you posted another post that I didn’t see. Have had 2 of my grand daughters here for a few days so haven’t been on the computer like I usually am. I will now go and read it. I’m so into Spring right now!
xoxox,
Carol m
my daffodils are coming up, so are my crocuses, can’t wait to see them. I love my daffodils so much I use my special vase for them, salt glazed stoneware with a fluted edge, goes perfectly with my sunny daffodils!!! 🙂
I have always loved that lamb cake mold. When I was a little girl on an Idaho farm the sheep would come graze at the end of the harvest with a sheep herder and his wagon. It was one of my favorite times of the year. I’ve noticed my tulips are just breaking ground so Spring is coming! Time to plan the garden. The book looks delightful.
What a lovely cake and lovely opening photos as well. Thank you for bringing spring a little early!
O, I know that all of you who are experiencing one of the harshest winters in a long time are so wishing for spring, but I really need a snow day. Here in south Arkansas we have had a couple of days of snow, but only on weekends. But girls, Spring is coming….yesterday I saw a flock of Geese flying north and my daffodils are starting to send up shoots of green. The lamb cake mold screams spring to me and since I have a birthday coming up, would be perfect for a birthday cake. Have faith, spring will come, it always has in the past and it will be here shortly!!!! -Love from Arkansas!!!! Donna
Today is a warm day here in Virginia Beach.
The skies are blue with a hint of gray around the edges, promising a chilly rain. It’s blustery and breezy, warm and sweet. After lots of snow, this day has me beside myself with SPRING FEVER! And I must say, Ms. Susan, this post did not help in the least! (Or did it help very much? It all depends on how you look at it. I’m thinking the latter.)
Green and white, warm grass and sun-warmed skin, breezy days and blooming buds.
Spring is on the horizon.
And do you know what would go well with Spring?
A lamb-cake pan and a gardening book.
Pick me!
With Love and Spring Fever,
-Lacy
I just love your blog posts! Daffodils are coming up in the middle of yard debris left from our big ice storm so I know spring is almost here in western Oregon. I would love to bake a lamb cake and carrot cupcakes with my granddaughter. She is 5 and a great helper! Thank you for your wonderful blog.
Love the cake recipe! Great even without being a lamb. My daughters new house has a field full of sheep next to it. Thought of you.
When I watch the news each day, I can see why you all want spring to hurry up & come your way. If it’s any consolation, we love snow so much that we make it a point to drive to it each winter, several times. We’re PA transplants & have to have snow in our lives each winter. We aren’t working though. It’s pretty tough when you have to get out in it & drive to work, early in the morning, on slippery roads/streets. I understand. Here in southern CA, we haven’t had our usual rains this winter. No mudslides is nice. But, we’re all trying to save water out here. One nice thing about the mild winter is that we’ve been sitting out on the patio most of the winter. Hang in there GF’s.
Susan, I’ve never been one to go through antique stores, but when I view the cooking tools you use, I feel like antiquing might be my newest hobby. Love the timer you use, the lamb pan, & the sifter (just too cute). And, I’ve got to get that little tool that fits on the pan, that holds the thermometer. Thanks for all the little things that you show us, things that are very important. (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats)
I have a rule — we all have to have a sifter, but it can be a cute sifter! It doesn’t have to be the same old thing. That’s why I love antique stores. You just never know what useful item you might find.
hmmm all I ever use is the strainers, different sizes, but they do just as well.
Oh….so sweet. My Aunt Harriett used to make a lamb cake in her cast iron lamb pan. Sure hope whoever has it enjoys it.
:Your friends’ home does look like a fairy tale!
Love the gate on your friends’ “fairy tale” house. I’ve been in a field of sheep in Scotland before — nothing like it! Would love for the gorgeous Vanna to pull my name to win the prize. Lamb cake pan and book would make a great entrance to spring!
Oh! Your cake is lovely, Susan! The simpler-looking–or “homemade-elegant” as you put it–desserts appeal to me more and more the older I get. I used to decorate cakes and cookies in a busier kind of way, but I really prefer the way you did your sweet lamb here. Simply lovely. ♥
Your friends’ house looks like my parents’ house, but I get to visit them next week, so that will help keep homesickness at bay. 🙂
Have a good afternoon ~
Val ♥
Thank you for the giveaway. My husband’s grandmother always baked a lamb cake for Easter.
…beautiful pictures,now I am ready for spring. Guess what? some of my bulbs are 2 inches out of the ground with snow still around but not long now winters letting go. Great post!!
Love that little lamb mold….he’s the cutest. What exactly is the wax paper method for sifting flour? I don’t think I’ve heard of that one.
Just love your blog!
If you click on those words on the blog, you’ll go to a youtube video of me sifting using the highly scientific (:-) ) wax paper method.
Oh, what a cute lamb cake pan! And the gardening book is awesome! I’ve only gardened one year, and I need all the help I can get. I do love it though, even if something doesn’t grow just right. So much fun! I love watching herbs grow the most. I enjoy all your photos. Always so beautiful! Have a blessed day!
Snowy Greetings from Vermont!
Hi Susan!
How delightful to find your blog on this, yet another, snowy Vermont day! Are you getting more snow? I worried about you and Joe on Saturday and when I saw your photos on your return trip to M.V., I nearly died! I think I would have closed my eyes for the entire trip but, thankfully, Joe delivered you both safely home! Wow, what a trip!! (I have heard that there are motels along the highway these days where one could stop for shelter for a night or two. 🙂 )
How cheerful your lamb cake is/was. My mother used to have a lamb mold but I have no idea what happened to it. Loved how you decorated your little lamb. And, that gardening book looks divine especially with drawings by Tasha Tudor! She was a very special person.
I belong to a camera club and we have different themes all the time and than we go out and shoot and then put our photos on our website. This morning, I piled together nearly all your books and took dozens of shots before finally getting the best one. (This theme is to take photos of your books and I knew right away what my first creation would be!) A few days ago, I suddenly saw another photo opportunity and went back to shoot it. Am going back in a week or so when the snow melts a little and get a better photo of it but I immediately thought that you and Joe would get a chuckle out of it. So, will send them to you in a few.
Thanks so much for the recipes and the book suggestion. I love to browse second hand book stores and will have to my eyes open.
Best wishes always, Michele
What a wonderful post today!!! It was full of cheer and such beautiful pictures. It was such fun watching you make the lamb cake!! Thank you for sharing with us today. And thank you, so much, for the lovely giveaway!!! I shall get busy now and think about spring and lamb cakes and enjoy all the snow that is still piled everywhere!!! I live across the street from Lake Erie and it is completely frozen over and looks like I could walk all the way to Canada!!! Brrr!!! 🙂
You are so adorable!! Love your books & blog!! <3
Oh Susan….an introduction to Spring….I cannot wait for the warmth of the sunshine on my back again, as I dig in the soil and smell that wonderful scent!!! Back to all the “hopefulls” of planting! Flowers and Veggies! It just makes my heart go “pitter patter” thinking about SPring and all its wonderfulness! Your cake is beyond darling and the book inspiring…I adore cookbooks from the 30’s 40’s and 50’s…as a matter of fact, I love all vintage cookbooks!!!! thank you for sharing your spring photos…That really got me going today….WaaHooo!
Love this cake and your blog! Thank you so much for the opportunity to win such a lovely prize!
The lamb cake is sweet! I remember a girlfriend making this for me on my birthday. That was back in high school. She was the best 🙂
I’m going to try making it this spring. Thanks for the recipe!
Loved your post today Susan, and thank you for the tips using toothpicks and wooden skewers as I was wondering about the head falling off!! Can’t wait to try your recipes they sound de-lish. It looked like all the tables were full at the “Branch House Feeder” restaurant!! lol Thank you for the chance to win such a wonderful gift, lamb mold AND book, oh my… P.S. Ordered my Fine Romance Bead Charm this morning, can’t wait. Do you have any idea if you will be getting The Vineyard and Girlfriend beads again? Please say YES! Also one last question, I promise, when I click on the rugs and the soaps links, I get nothing, don’t know if it is me or what. Have a wonderful “dreaming of spring day” and please give Jack and Girl a kiss from me I just love them.
I think Girlfriend is coming back, but maybe we have retired the other two, we’ll make new ones instead. We have Kitty Love coming real soon. I sent your question about the rugs and soaps to Kellee, she’ll fix it.
Thank you so much!
Dear Susan,
Thank you so much for your lovely Spring photos….you brightened my day !!!
Yesterday it was over 50 degrees here in Montrose, Colorado. I worked in the yard and found little bits of green here and there. I can’t wait for Spring.
Hugs, Carol
Oh please, oh please pick me 🙂
Puts me in the SPRING mood!
So excited to see how you made the lamb cake. It is beautiful and the cake sounds very yummy!! The garden book looks amazing also!
Oh Susan I so wish I could share some of this Spring we are having in Florida right now. Would love to send some SUNSHINE to the girlfriends up north. Although it looks like you already have with this post!!! Such beautiful pictures on your blog!!! Thank you for sharing! I just had to leave a comment but you can take my name out of the drawing because I have both. The book belonged to my dear Mother who just loved gardening and the lamb pan I have had. BUT I really appreciate your tips because after a couple of years of the head continually falling off it had found a place just sitting on my countertop during the spring with a bow on it…lol!! I cannot wait to put your tips into action and use it for cake this Spring!!!! Lemon cake at that!…:o) I also love the way you decorated it. I also used the green coconut with this and a rabbit cake. I think the grandkids will be delighted!! I KNOW I will…lol. What a charming house your friend has…..makes me want to move North even more….Just beautiful!!!! Thank you for the breath of fresh spring air you brought to us today….<3
Just the visual lift I needed today for a long weary winter in Michigan!
What a fun and delightful cake…my GRANDS would LOVE it!
Thank you for the opportunity to enter.