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! ♥
Here in Ohio had our first hint of spring yesterday. 40 degrees , brilliant blue sky, and the sound of melting icicles drip, drip, dripping. Sweet music to the ears!
Thank you for a bright spot in a miserable winter. I don’t know how you are standing this unrelenting snow! Your quotes give me so much pleasure. Can’t wait to try the lamb cake!
My almost-one-year-old kittens came running when I clicked on the sounds of spring. They have just discovered birdwatching out the window and are enthralled. I have never tried to make a cake with a mold but I think the Lamb would be perfect for my first attempt! The cake was so adorable! Thank you for the chance to win the mold and cookbook and for bringing a little spring to a gray day!
Kittens!!!
Read your blog today with a cup of tea by the fire with fresh baked lemon bars! Made for a perfect day!
Oh my, that is the sweetest lamb cake ever!! He looks just like the picture of the black-faced lambie!! You are such an inspiration dear Susan.
Just what I needed today. It’s gray and damp out but the birds are on the feeders, the cats are snuggled up in chairs and Spring is just around the corner. Loved the music, the adorable and delicious lamb cake and reading your blog. Thanks so much for bringing a little English charm to my Texas day.
Susan, it’s been very spring-like here in Southern California. It’s 77.9 degrees here as I write at 1:50 in the afternoon. I have been crocheting items in spring colors and am anxious to plant some pretty flowers in the planters attached to my mother’s gazebo in the backyard. I’ve told you this before, but I collect sheep figurines similar to the one in your blog today. I just love them. Thanks for the chance to win the mold and the book. I would be thrilled to have them.
What an adorable cake. Almost too cute to eat. Thank you for the yummy recipe and thank you for the chance to win.
Michelle
This wonderful, Spring-like post is just what I needed today – thank you,Susan! This little book looks intriguing and I love anything to do with gardens. You make baking with the lamb mold look easy and fun. When not baking with it, I think that I would display him/her with the beautiful ribbon around the neck!
I am the hostess at Easter here so that adorable lamb cake..made my heart beat:)
Thank you for the recipe and the toothpick trick too:)
I have no idea why..but I am still enjoying our deep QC winter..
However..:)
I long to see our home behind the Serviceberry and flowering Crabapples~
The bunny cake is pretty cute too:)
I remember getting a lamb cake for Easter from the bakery next-door to my dance studio when I was a little girl. Now that I have a little girl, I think it’s time to resurrect this tradition. Your recipe sounds perfect for a springtime cake, and I believe it will make a perfect Easter dessert this year. If I don’t win that adorable lamb pan, I will definitely have to buy one. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe and bringing back wonderful memories. I’m also a big Tasha Tudor fan. I’ve been collecting her books since childhood, but I don’t have that one. I’d love to win it! Thank you so much for the opportunity, Susan!
This is so charming and pretty! I love the Spring flowers and the adorable lamb cake. 🙂 I live in the Northeast “Arctic” and this was like a breath of fresh air.
Hello Susan! Your “Inspire Spring” post is THE BEST medicine for the very snowy winter we are experiencing in Michigan!!! After chopping icey sidewalk and driveway surfaces, I came in for a bowl of hot soup, and there was your Springtime/Lamb Caketime cheery pictures! Your lamb cake is superb! Did your guests enjoy the lemony batter? I had to catch my breath, when you said the lamb mold, PLUS the delightful book was to be given to a very lucky Girlfriend!!! Oh how I will be dreaming of being the winner!!! My Grandmother is no doubt smiling down from heaven, because her specialty was baking the lamb cake for the grandkiddies! Since 1997, there has never been a lamb cake gracing any birthday celebration table 🙁 After watching how you baked it, I now understand the process. Thank you Susan for the step-by-step instructions. So excited!!!!!!
I have been battling illness for the past 3 years and the depression from it was particularly difficult since November. A friend recommended your book, A Fine Romance, since I had travelled to England on the QM2 in 2009. As I read, I felt better each day. I have started doing needlework again. Now, I want to try some of your recipes. Your book and website are giving me joy. Thank you!
That just touches my heart Peggy, I’m so happy to hear that. xoxo
Oh my! Delightful and sweet is the lamb cake! I have never seen this book, what a treasure it will be for some lucky lady! Enjoyed the spring photos so much!
While reading this blog, my 4 year old granddaughter was sitting next to me, watching TV. She is just starting to like to help with mixing, baking and frosting cookies and cakes. She just happened to look over and saw the sheep cake and asked, ” Is that a cake?” I told her yes it was, and she said that it looked like the sheep she sees in the fields by her pre-school. I just started to follow your blog. LOVE ALL the pictures you post. Wish we had seasons here in southern California.
Hello, dear Susan. Here in Santa Barbara, the drought makes me dream of Spring from the opposite perspective from the other girlfriends…”snow” would be great here! Thank you so much for your posts. I feel a softening of my heart when I see you have a new blog post, because I know I’m about to read about something wonderful, that will transport me to a very sweet state of mind. Once again, “Thank You, my friend.”
That lamb cake is just to darn cute . . .having it 3 dimensional is just the dish! I live in the Northeast – western NY Snowbelt, so the Spring Fever is really high here!!! Thankfully we are having just a little melt and hoping to find some spring signs without 2 feet of snow on them.
Such memories you’ve brought back!!! My Grandma used to make me a Lamb cake for my birthday when I was very young. I have a photo of me and my cake , sitting on her porch. (I believe it was my 5th birthday) Thank you for reminding me of such a wonderful memory. Would love to have one of those pans! Thanks for the chance, Susan!
Thank you for the wonderful recipes! I am enjoying imagining how delicious they are while I have my cup of tea ~* Can’t wait to make the Lamb cake with the marshmallow frosting- my favorite 🙂
Oh how adorable is your lambie cake Susan!… thank you for sharing all of the wonderful recipes… I love how you made this one look from referring to your wonderful book from England on lambs… I also love your look at Spring… our winter has been much too long and cold this year and I have Spring fever terribly bad… enjoy your party with your friends… indeed that is a fairytale cottage… as is your home… much love, xoxo Julie Marie
Lambie Pie was my grandfather’s pet name for my sweet little Gran. I will never forget him coming in the door and calling for her. The Lamb Pan is adorable.
I’ve enjoyed thinking of spring with you. I broke my wrist this winter falling on the ice; and a snowstorm is predicted for tomorrow here. We’re ready with chili makings and dreams of baking cookies; and your thoughts of springtime! Thanks.
Love how you ended up decorating your little lamb! Would love to win so I could make my own. Thank you for the inspiration.
Hi Susan,
That lamb mold is about the cutest thing I have ever seen! It is near 80 here in Texas today – already getting to enjoy spring. I have a college-aged daughter who is an aspiring artist and we both enjoy your blog.
Ohhhh, my grandma always used to make lamb cake for Easter! I think she must’ve had the same cake mold you have because the cake was the same shape exactly. The catch? Grandma’s lamb cake always tasted like moth balls since she stored the cake mold in the pantry near the moth balls. LOL! Guessing yours tastes MUCH better!
I always feel so inspired when I read your blog.
I would love to make that Lambie cake for my granddaughter!
Thanks for all you do.
Edda
Thank you for the adorable lamb cake recipe and great picture. I hope to try it!
And thank you for your always wonderful blog and for sharing your beautiful art. It always brightens my day.
It’s a beautiful day in Charleston! I am looking forward to spring because even we have had a pretty rough winter. We have daffodils blooming outside, and I have a pot of beautiful yellow tulips blooming inside. Loved the blog!
In the lovely little town of Norfolk, MA we are getting what I call sn-rain. It has been a good day to stay in and bake: paper thin little cappachino shortbreadcookies sandwiched with Mascarpone cream. They will be dipped in chocolate tomorrow. I borrowed a lambic pan when I was about 16 (a long time ago!) and I would love to add one to my baking cupboard or perhaps let it sit with the bunnies in my Hoosier cupboard at Easter – after it has been used to bake the cake oaf course.
What a lovely way to celebrate spring–even with another polar vortex threatening. Lemon and coconut together–a book illustrated by Tasha Tudor–it all makes my heart sing.
Hi Susan…great tips on making the lamb cake. I, too, have spring fever. Sooo tired of snow and cold. Thanks for a little snippet of spring!
Susan, What a lovely post today – but every one you do is wonderful. The lamb is just precious – so sweet. Here in Georgia we are ready for spring – crazy weather last week – ice, snow – just a big mess. Today is overcast and in the high 60’s. The daffodils are up but I’m afraid the buds may be frozen. I also saw some of the daylilies trying to poke their leaves out – Mother Nature truly has a wonderful sense of humor! Have a wonderful week – I can’t wait to see the new calendars.
Love, the pictures of Spring! We’re in Minnesota so it will be a while before we see anything like it but we are always hopeful for an early Spring! Thanks for the uplifting blog and wonderful book, A Fine Romance! I enjoy/ed them both so much!
Thank you for the chance to win that cute mold and the garden book. My grandson would love an Easter lamb cake! Have a great evening! (I’m sick with a bad cold, so all I’m going to do is watch TV:)
Well, it’s “springlike” here near Chicago — 45 degrees & sunny! I’ll take it! I have a bunny cake form, but would love a lamb cake form to go with it! : )
Thanks!
Thank you for your spring inspiration! I teach bible study for 2 and 3 year olds and we’re called the “Green Lambs class” – would love to make the lamb mold cake for them! It would be a fun tradition to make one each year for the children! Ok Vanna, pick me!!!
What a lovely post. We have a few spring flowers trying to peep through here. (Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England). Snowdrops under the tree in the front garden and witch hazel, little lambs tails on the twisted hazel and winter jasmine in the back garden. The daffodils are starting to show their green leaves too. I love this time of year. We’ve had no snow to speak of this year but oh, the rain! I would love the Lamb cake pan, I’ve never tried a shaped cake but I’d love to have a go. x
Love the lambie cake and who doesn’t adore Tasha Tudor! What a wonderful “Kitchen Gardens” book – I’ve never seen it and would love to. Thank you always, Susan, for your happy and homey thoughts.
When I was a little girl my mom brought home a lamb cake for Easter from the bakery. It was so special and such a happy memory for me. I’ve often thought of getting a mold and trying to recreate that magic for my family. Maybe this will be my lucky entry, if not you’ve inspired me to make a lamb cake of my very own and reminded me of a special childhood memory. I’m already a winner.
My grown-up daughter has discovered your blog and she loves it, too. She said just this week that you are so inspiring, that you find joy and life in the little things, things that everybody–no matter what their circumstances–can find. I thought I knew all about you but I have thought long and hard about what she said and decided she’s absolutely right! Today the joy and life comes in a most fabulous lamb cake and a dear old book on gardening.
You’re the Best. ~_~
xoxo Mona, hello to your daughter too.
Absolutely adorable. Now I, of course, want to try and make that cute lamb cake as well! Fingers crossed. Thank you for bringing joy to all of us!
What I don’t learn from the internet!!! I never knew one could bake a cake like that. A tradition in my family was my mother always baked our birthday cakes with heart shaped pans –not a cake you had to cut apart and put back together (I am the owner of these pans now that my mother has passed.) She used toothpicks to hold the 2 layers together (usually 3 in the cake). If you got a piece with one of the toothpicks, you were allowed to make a wish. Even at my senior age, I still make wishes if I get one of those pieces.
I loved the look of your finished cake. I will have to try your recipe in regular pans as I also LOVE coconut.
Thank you for sharing so much joy with us.
the most darling cake. EVER.
Susan – Thank you for the little Spring tease. The Lemon Daisy Cake recipe sounds delicious! And thank you for the chance to win the lamb cake mold & the Betty Crocker Garden Book.
Thank you for the chance to win the Mold & Cookbook and for bringing Spring to our gray day! …You must go back to the photo of “adding the Sugar” ..and see your most adorable Owl Timer peeking wide eyed at what you are doing 😉 …so cute <3
Dear Vanna,
Please pick me. I have been tending my basset Dudley who had two teeth extracted, a growth on his inner eyelid and a growth between his toes on his paw removed three weeks ago. His paw is infected and we need to go to the Vet every other day for the bandage change. Very thankful the growths were not cancerous.
The first week I slept on the floor with him, then the second week I got wise and he and I slept in the guest room. Now we are into week three and he has rejoined my husband and me in our bed. It is not easy to sleep with a dog wearing a cone.
Did I mention it has been THREE weeks?
I think this must be the first time he has worn a cone, we got him at the shelter about four years ago so we don’t know his history.
If I win, I will make the cake and feed it to Dudley.
I love your commitment to your furbaby, and thank-you for rescuing him from the shelter! My eight year old babe, my pittie mix who found the correct driveway nearly eight years ago when he wandered in as a tiny puppy, just had his teeth cleaned the other day. Even with meds, he is highly anxious and has severe White Collar Syndrome at the vet. No touching him to change bandages without sedation 🙁 I just tell the Lord that He’s going to have to look after him as he’s not a normal dog what will allow himself to be poked or prodded! I suspect, however, that even if you don’t win, Dudley will get a special treat :-))
Tasha Tudor and a lemon daisy lamb cake…..just enchanting….a sight for sore winter eyes:) Thank you. Blessings!
What a lovely post today, Susan. I played both musicas at the same time and it was delightful. Spring is in the air here on the West coast of Vancouver Island. Saw a few pink rhododendrons blooming, and the forsythia is also showing it’s lovely yellow flowers. A few deep pink camellias are popping out on my neighbour’s bush beside her front door. Love your lamb cake with the coconut icing. I think boiled icing is the best. My kids always wanted it on their birthday cakes. Thanks so much for the recipes. The Betty Crocker book is a great score, and I love anything that Tasha Tudor did. She was an amazing woman, totally self reliant.
Thank you so much for sharing the Lamb cake recipe! (not to mention the great tips). It’s inspired me to try and improve my baking skills.
My dear sister in law will love it (she’s been a “lamb person” all her life!)
Spring is coming!
Still cold and very snowy here in Eastern PA. I’ve been enjoying our record-setting white winter, but I have to admit that the 20 minutes of sunshine we had today sparked a little Spring fever!
Thank you for your beautiful blog, and thank you for your generosity – can’t wait to try your lemon cake…hopefully with the cute little lamb cake pan 🙂
Well I certainly need a good spring recipe to make while I endure another, yes I said another winter storm !!! OMGosh this time it is going to be rain & thunder, yes wind too. Then it’s going over to ice & snow. Did I mention the fog. Well I better get shopping for the ingredients so I can make my Lamb Cake. Thank you Ms. Susan. <3
my grandmother made a lamb cake too! Oh, how I would cherish the garden book as well!!
Fantastic post! Thank you so much. What a FUN cake to make…can’t wait to try it…if I win the drawing…or its off to finding one on the internet. Also, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pix of the front of your friends house…the gate, the snow, the door…it is absolutely picture perfect! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! for making my day so wonderful. Off to see the ukulele player – Jake Shimabukuro this evening. He is a WONDERFUL entertainer; check him out on U-tube or the net – you will not be sorry!
Oh what an adoreable Lamb Cake. Bet your friends just loved it. And their house is so beautiful. It did indeed look like a fairytale house. Thanks for sharing. Spring will be here before you know it girlfriends, Stay warm girlfriends in the snow and for us leftcoast people…..please do a rain dance. We need it soooooo bad.
Oh, Susan. I took pictures of sheep all over Ireland two years ago. I fell in love with them. Now I want to go to England and do the same. I would love the lamb mold to try and copy and cute little Irish lamb.
Susan, I so appreciate you showing us how to use that lamb cake pan. I tried to use a friends and had so much trouble. The Tasha Tudor garden book is adorable. Spring is here in Texas. I turned the central air on today. It’s coming your way. Thank you for this wonderful post.
Thank you for the opportunity to win! So lovely for spring…which is feels like already here in NW Texas….warm and muggy!
I love the lamb cake. Love your blog. Can’t get enough of it!
What a wonderful memory from childhood – a lamb cake!
Oh, I love the lamb cake — he is very droll and adorable! Does it get any better than lemon and coconut? Impossible, I say! After many Easters, my mom only recently gave up on the lamb cake, which she made in a heavy mold like this, I think because one time its icing started melting on the trip to my sister’s house, giving the effect of a very sad lamb indeed. I always had issues when it came time to, um, divide the lamb into pieces – especially the head. Maybe it’s time for me to pick up the tradition for my own daughter! Is that forsythia in your picture? I remember a boy at my school who came one morning with a bouquet of flowers, probably for his teacher. It was one of the prettiest I had ever seen. He lived with his grandmother, and she had cut branches from the forsythia in her yard, adding jonquils, tulips, and maybe another flower from her garden that she had cut, leaving the stems long. Its simplistic beauty, at least in my opinion, far surpassed any expensive arrangement. I’ll have to look for that book — I love Tasha Tudor, and a dream of mine would be to visit her home in Vermont; I would be in a swoon, for sure. Add Gladys Taber’s house, and that would be heaven indeed. Speaking of – aren’t you going there this year as a keynote speaker? I would just imagine that you’ll barely be able to sleep the night before! Thank-you for a beautiful taste of spring — and of lemony lamb cake 🙂
How cute is that lamb??? So sweet. I love all the spring animals…little squirrels, birds, goats, calves, horses, even little baby chicks…all so new and clean. How special that you would share your lamb pan and herb book with us. Thank you for your blog…love reading each one….and all the comments as well. -r-
LOVING the comments! xoxo
My grandmother used to make a lamb mold cake like this every Easter. The walls of her kitchen were lemony yellow and a canary sang in a cage in the south window. Oh, those were wonderful days.
Everything on your blog, is always precious. Your photos, your words, your *up-beat-ness*, etc. (Hmmmm, is *up-beat-ness* a word??? -grin-) Well, you’ll know what I mean… The way we know we will end up being happy, happy, happy, after reading here.
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Your give-aways look charming. I’d love to win. But will Congratulate who ever does win.
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Gentle hugs,
Tessa~
Love your blog, I have all your cookbooks but have yet to try the boiled frosting recipe. It looks easy and delicious!
OOOh! My 4 boys and 4 little nieces would simply love a lamb cake for Easter this year! Hope we win the mold! Thanks for sharing the Spring-y thoughts and photos. Here in the DC area we are dreaming of cherry blossoms, that magical time of year when we bring a picnic to the tidal basin and soak in clouds of pink! For now, the snow is still piled up…
I absolutely love the little lamb but I am more excited about the book. I am trying so very, very hard this year to have a garden – something I have never done – and this would help tremendously.
Be sure to start small. That’s the trick to being happy with your garden.
What a darling cake. Your blog today really lifted my spirits. It wasn’t one word too long. It’s one of first things I look for when I open my computer. Our winter has been nothing like yours but rainy, gloomy days here in Seattle are really making me yearn for spring, Easter, and a new beginning. Thank you for the chance to win a wonderful garden book and lamb cake mold. I wouldn’t be afraid to attempt this cake after watching your great tutorial.
I may be hosting Easter this year…what a splendid cake to have on my Easter table! You are always so inspirational, Susan. Thank you for the thoughts of Spring~ we need it in snowy CT!
I love anything lemon flavored, so I will have to try this recipe ASAP! The book looks awesome… Tasha Tudor is one of my favorites. What a beautiful little home, the red door looks lovely all lit up against the snow. 🙂
Susan,
This is AMAZING! Would you dare to believe that my Grandma Anna Mae Jackson made a lamb cake every year for our family Easter dinner? It was the centerpiece of the table and it would not have been Easter without it. I could not believe it when I saw the lamb cake pan! Until now, I had not seen anyone else love that lamb as much as she did, complete with the coconut on top of that white icing. 🙂 She also decorated the little lamb with green tinted coconut and jelly beans….how this brought back the memories. I do not know what happened to her pan….. She passed on to heaven in Spring 2009 at the age of 94. Thank you for sharing this memory of the “lamb cake” with me!! <3
Love,
Julie~ granddaughter of Anna Mae in MO
What a lovely post to read today ! You make me believe that Spring WILL come soon. Remember the saying “In like a Lion…Out like a Lamb!”?? How about changing it to “In like a Lion…Out like a Lamb Cake!!” Would love to win the lamb cake mold…thank you for your inspirations and generous give-a-ways.
I like it! 🙂
A new blog (they are NEVER too long!), lambs, cake, Spring—-thanks for being you and making the simple things in life such a gift……
Love the adorable lamb! Spring fever is setting in here in the mountains of CO too! I’ve set the table with spring green, ivy and a pot of gold in hopes it arrives soon. Would love to serve the lemon lamb cake for a spring dinner! Hope it warms up in your corner of creation soon.
I have a “thing” for lambs. In fact for awhile everyone was buying me lambs as gifts. I LOVE this lamby pan. What a beautiful Easter dessert this would make, or a baby shower cake! I also have a thing for Tasha Tudor. LOL this giveaway is the perfect combination of two things I really love so I hope I win. Thanks for the opportunity Sue!
I’ve been in the ‘dumps’ today..looking out the window at another cold, wet, gray day. Opening the page of your Blog gave me just the JOLT of spring I needed! Thanks for sharing the forgleam of warmer weather and beauty! Your cake turned out so sweet. The coconut wool is the best idea! Lambs/sheep are the loveliest of animals and I believe you (and Tasha Tudor) capture them so well! The book and the mold would be put to good use at my house! :o) Hope you are safe and warm where you are!
Now I want to make him! He’s so cute! And with your tips and that yummy lemon daisy cake recipe, I gotta do it! Thanks for all the details!
Thank you for the breath of Spring Air, it infused my lungs, mind & spirit. Following the lamb mold journey to the oven took back to 1967 my younger sis & I taking on this adventure for our family Easter dinner, our precious parents were awesome and did not mind the coconut all over the kitchen! I am digging out those pictures tonight!!
Bless you
When I was a child my grandmother made lovely little lamb cakes for her grandkids birthdays, and just yesterday I found a very old picture of one of them when I was going thru photos with my sweet Momma. I think the photo was taken around 1965 or so…I was just a wee one. What fun to see your lamb cake come to life today. My grandmother would have loved it! And oh, what I wouldn’t give to sit down to a slice of lamb cake with you 🙂
Love the lamb (and bunny) cakes! I will be making this for Easter this year.
love this chance to win!!!!! So cute and special. boiled frosting has always been my favorite ,I still use my moms recipe. AND ILOVE LEMON,!! THANK YOU SUE FOR THE FRESH SPRING VISIONS!!
Thank you Susan! it is snowing outside right now but you have given me hope that Spring is coming!! A great way to celebrate with a lemon lamb cake!!
Love your blog, please more pictures of Jack and Girl, I pretend they are my kitties, they are soooooo cute!
You know how cats are? They think you want something and that’s the very thing they are not going to give you. Jack sees me with the camera and looks away!! I have to catch him in just the right moment. And Girl, she runs! But being the cat mommy I am, I will never give up!
Hi Susan and Debbie, I just got two books out of the library. One is called “French Cats” by Rachel Hale and the other, for those of us who also love dogs, is called “French Dogs” by the same author. Beautiful pictures of cats and dogs and bonus – beautifulcountry of France as a background. I gave “French Dogs” to my cousin as a “welcome new puppy” gift and she loved it.
I am a weaver and knitter, so I love sheep, too, and have a small collection. I would love to win the lamb cake pan and gardening book. Tasha Tudor is another favorite of mine. Thanks for your blog; I enjoy it very much!
Your cupcakes and that wonderful frosting was just the pop I needed. I know spring is on the way! Love your lamb cake! Such fun! I’m going to find one if Vana doesn’t pick me…you know how she is!!
Oh now I want to make little Laura a lamb cake for her birthday! I already have the pan — but so thankful for a good recipe and technic now!!!! That gardening book sounds like a must — especially since tasha Tudor did the illustrations!
I would love to make use of that adorable lamb cake mold, and even more so that wonderful looking cookbook. As I am a Gardener and home cook, I see myself with my nose in the book for baking and tending to my flowers. Thank you Susan for this generous give-a-way.
That book with Tasha Tudor illustrations looks precious. Love all the spring time pics and listening to the birds 🙂
Oh, how you have blessed my day, Susan! I can only imagine the sweet aroma of spring there on MV, but the sweet promise of amber waves of grain still lies hidden beneath its pristine coverlet here, hemmed by fence rows that hide the sweet shoots of asparagus that grow wild along our road. (I can hardly wait!)
Thanks for the fun I had shopping with you today, Susan. 😉 I must say, you have the best taste! I bought a lamb cake pan for my daughter with 3 boys, a green vintage timer & my favorite private blend tea for me, and the cutest chick cookie cutter for my daughter who raises free range chickens. And I did it all with my left hand because of the rotator cuff repair a week ago. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
(Oh, and I loved the bird musica!) Incidentally, take care of your shoulders, Susan. Doing without my right hand is a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I’m no artist!
Sara
Oh, you had your surgery and you’re on the mend Sara! That’s so good to hear, and your left-hand shopping fingers are getting nicely exercised! 🙂
Hi Susan,
How cheerful your lamb cake is. I just love reading your blog. I get such good ideas from you. You are so creative. Such a joy!
Thank you
Oh goodness, gracious me. The adorable lamb cake!!!! What a sweet addition any springtime meal. The mold would be sitting out on my kitchen island year round.
Blessings to youl
It is pretending to be spring here in Waco, Texas. I have sweet peas that are about 4″ tall, a front bed of Erlicheer narcissus and petite daffodils and the Italian jasmine is blooming out back. I’ve trimmed all of the frozen runners off of the fig ivy, cut back the holly fern, and mulched the beds. The corgis are enjoying every minute of being outdoors. You would thing that they were puppies instead of stately gentlemen ten years of age. Loved the lamb cake!!
Your cake recipe sounds heavenly! I think I may give it a test run this weekend! Yum! The icing, too. I love the lamb mold, it seems smaller than the ones I have seen in stores. SO cute!! And thanks for the tips, I can barely unmold a simple layer cake! lol!
The book looks precious, I just finished ordering seeds for my veggie garden last night. I go to Renee’s Garden. It’s a website. You might know of her. She had the prettiest illustrations on her website and on the seed packets, you hate to throw them out!!
Thanks so much for such a wonderful giveaway!
XO,
Jane From Chicago
Reading your post makes my heart long for spring! There is a farm near our home with sheep and we love to see the spring lambs in the field.
My cooking skills may not be ready for the lamb mold–but am willing to give it a try.
Oh, I agree with everyone today, what a lovely blog. It was so warm here in Texas this week that I thought it was already Spring! The cake looks so scrumptious ….you did good. Thanks for the inspiration.
Hi Susan, Love your post as usual! This lamb cake is the coolest and cutest!!! What a lovely giveaway! This is very generous and kind of you, Susan. Both the cake pan and the book would be a treasure to win! Obviously I, along with everyone else leaving a comment, would love to win, but in case it’s not me, congratulations to the fortunate winner! :o) Looking forward to seeing who it is! Have a warm, cozy, and happy evening!
Smiles, Deborah :o)
My tree bundt pan always draws compliments — this is the springy complement!
I have a lamb cake pan and made one for our annual after church Easter brunch a couple of years ago….and when I walked in with it, one of the guys just started tearing up and had to take a picture of it immediately with his phone. I’ve since realized if you want to make a grown man cry, just make a cake that touches his nostalgic heartstrings. A “circus cake” with animal crackers and Necco candies will do it too. I also have “Kitchen Gardens”, but do not have your autograph so of course I’d love that. If I win, I’ll give away my lamb cake pan and my “Kitchen Gardens” to a special friend. Fingers crossed. Thank you again for all of your sweetness and generosity, Susan.
~deb h
WOW!!!!!! What a beautiful blog. I was in awe of your beautiful house
in the snow so I’ll say: Love your house in spring
Love your house in fall
Love your house in summer
But winter, best of all……….
That’s because I yearn for snow. Going to make Russian tea cakes for
my church group. Would have made the carrot cupcakes if I’d thought
of it.
Spring has sprung here in Southern CA. Not that we ever had winter. The deciduous trees are bursting with green and my winter blooming sweet peas have been in bloom for weeks. The lamb cake is lovely and the lamb cake mold is a treasure standing alone. When I first started scrolling down the page and saw the cookbook it didn’t seem right that a Betty Crocker cookbook would have a cover with a “Tasha Tudor” looking picture. Low and behold it really is a Tasha Tudor. What a treasure. Let Vanna do her thing. Hope that wonderful gift heads to CA.