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! ♥
Cute lamb mold and cake! Thanks for the step by step instructions for making it. The book would also be lovely to own as I love Tasha Tudor. Your Spring post is just what the doctor ordered:) I too cannot wait for Spring!! I always look forward to a new post from you Susan, always brightens my day!
Thank you for sharing “Spring Retreat”…your books have been enjoyed
and shared with my family since a 1980’s cookbook purchase. My daughter and grand daughters are now 2nd and 3rd generation fans. Love the “Lambie Cake” and recipe – a great introduction to Spring!
That Little Lambie is tickety-boo!
Tickety-Boo — how right you are Terri! 🙂
Dear Susan, Your artwork and these photos have so put me in a Spring mood–especially after the big snow. I cannot think of the season without thinking of the little lambs with their sweet little faces that we see along the countryside in PA.
Have a lovely Spring and Thank You.
Spring!! LoVe !!! We planted a forsythia when our son was born!
On my way home for lunch today I had to do a double-take – for in a yard with southern exposure there was a forsythia bush with the first daring yellow blossoms saying “hello”. It made me smile to think that spring is almost here!
Hi, Kelly. I’m in Clarkston. Our hyacinths are coming up. Feels like March the past couple days, doesn’t it!
Our family always has a coconut cake for Easter but I never have made a lamb cake!! You sold me on it….I want one, please! I’ll take very good care of Lambie.
How sweet, I can’t wait to try the delicious Daisy Cake and it would be as amazing as bee’s knees if my cake came out as flawless as your lammie cake did,, you made it look so easy..thank you again for your inspiring posts.. God bless from Kentucky!!!
I have a twenty-six year old daughter that is my “lamby pie”. I would love to bake this cake for her. I have been adding to her lamb collection for years. This would be a lovely addition. I might have to keep the book for myself. It looks lovely.
You are so creative! Love the lamb cake and gardening book- little late making a comment- hope not too late- would love to try the cake! :o)
Very inspiring indeed!- and never, ever too long!
I love that Kitchen Garden book! . . . I have the Buttr’y Shelf Cookbook (also by Mary Mason Campbell and Tasha Tudor) and it’s such a treasure that I can quite see why this one is so special. I would so love to win it and the lamb cake mold- though I am a little intimidated because he turned out so cute when you made him and I admit that my cakes always leave something to be desired. I follow directions to a tee and the darn things just won’t rise for me, or set or cook evenly or turn out too dry, etc. . . I will say I am wickedly good with scones and cookies though!
Thanks for sharing some spring! There are days when one feels it may never arrive. But it is good to learn patience, or as my grandmother would add, “You might become a patient if you hurry too fast.”
Since I’m a rug hooker, I just love all things with sheep or lambs. What a wonderful gift they give us in the form of wool. It is such a wonderful medium for creating beautiful rugs. A Lamby-Pie cake would be such a great dessert to serve my rug hooking group. Also being a huge fan of anything involving Tasha Tudor’s art- the garden book would be a treasure.
” Oh, cake mold of Lamby-Pie, please come my way or I shall cry!”
Hi Susan and all the girlfriends!
So I was thinking about spring and lambs and I’ve decided that there has to be a tour company out there that wants to do a “Susan Branch Favorites” tour of the U.K. They could work with you to develop an itinerary, say 10 days to 2 weeks. Then you can advertise it and all the girlfriends can sign up. You would have to go again as one of the tour guides, of course. And of course Joe could come too, but we would get someone else to drive so he could relax. Then we could look at gardens and lambs and houses til our hearts content! Wouldn’t we have the best time?! But your right, until then we are lucky to have the internet that allows us to get together and cyber tour!
Our grandchildren would love the lamb cake. Maybe I will make a chocolate one with marshmallow icing and pink M&M eyes.
I had lambs as a child, and I would just love to be able to make a lamb cake.
Thank you so much! That was a truly enjoyable post. I get so inspired by your photography!
Now I want to cook, but alas, no time right now. ?? maybe this weekend!
Cheers,
Jan from Northern CA
What a lovely gift to give to a lucky girlfriend. So Spring-ey. Thanks for thinking of us (again).
My mom had that pan, or maybe she borrowed it. She only made it once, when I was 5ish, a Lemon Daisy Cake! I make that in a Bundt every Easter. I’d love to make a little lamby cake!
Loved this lamb cake post. My mom collected lambs so I’m partial to them, too.
Mr. Jack is such an attentive little helper. I know you appreciate his assistance. (Or is he really just hoping you’ll finish up in a hurry so you can get back to your “real” job of pony tail holder flinger?)
With freezing rain now falling on the 12″ of snow we got two days ago, spring seems a long way off! The lamb cake gives one hope that spring is just around the corner . . .
Have had such fun reading your new book, and finding your blog. The sheep cake looks so fun. We have a butter mold 3D that is very similar. It is ugly plastic, but the end result is nice : )
What a wonderful post today! The bowl you made the frosting in photographs simply gorgeous – I so wanted to put my finger in to scoop out a taste of that yummy frosting! Please tell us what you think of the book Goldfinch!
I will … I thought I would start it immediately when I got it, but I am reading the Scent of Water right now and want to finish and not confuse myself before I start Goldfinch!
Just got Scent of Water…can’t wait to start it.
Wonderful reminder that spring is indeed coming!! Thank you!
Thanks Susan! Love the Marshmallow like yummy frosting 🙂
Gardening books are a joyful read anytime of year. But especially during this winter…igniting hopes of spring
Dear Susan, I definitely needed a little taste of Spring! My heart is aching for it, my kids are sick of being inside, and I want to open my windows! I’m looking forward to spring cleaning, maybe while a delicious lamb cake is cooking in the oven … one can hope 🙂
Thank you for sharing the Spring Time inspiration….the pictures, the cutie lambie pie, the recipe and the book. All so wonderful!
Hi Susan, It’s me again. That wasn’t the quiz I took. This one had dogs you pick and playing cards you pick. Lots of fun. Try this:
http://zimbio.com/quiz/WLF_Ky-a_03/Downton+Abbey+Character?result=F725z37eA0z
Please note that the 0 before that last z is a number 0 (not the letter). I hope this will bring it up.
I’m not so techy and had to try a couple of times before it came up. My friend sent it to me. I don’t know why it didn’t come up blue so you could just click on it. Hope it works. We all love our fun quizes. Hugs, Gail
I like yours better! I’m the Dowager Countess — In the other one I was Anna! Quite a contrast!
Funny but I got Anna and my husband got Bates!
A match made in heaven!
I never knew what the blue typing was for! That is, until this morning when I clicked on blue names & blue typing. More blogs to read, pictures to look at, new kitties to love, I’ll never ever get anything accomplished around my house now. Loved the blogs I read. I’ve been missing so much. (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats)
Yeah for you Sandy! And you are figuring it out for yourself! Trust me it’s much easier to have a small child around to help us with this internet stuff! it just doesn’t come easy to us! I am simply amazed at what grandchildren can do on the computer and some of them can not even read yet!
Have a great day Sandy!
Chris
Good grief – I turned out to be Mr Bates! I’m speechless – LOL!
Strong, smart, loyal and self reliant.
On the other test, I was Lord Grantham! What the heck. Hey, I want to be a girl!! LOL!
🙂
Oh, I’d love to hear who we all “turn out” to be! Please take the “test” Girlfriends. Very short and fun!
Oh to win the garden book,,love Tasha Tudor and all her drawings,,
I never have made a lamb cake before ,but would love to give it a try,,
maybe will be a new Easter tradition,,,,Judy
A very dear friend made this cake every Easter…head problems and all…my heart melts at the wonderful memories.
A lamb and a book–how great–I can eat while I read. Great giveaway.
What a wonderful and sweet Lamb cake. The recipe sounds divine. I am definitely going to make it the next time I bake a cake.
Thank you so much for this great, inspiring post. I would love to be the winner. Lambs and Tasha Tudor, oh how heavenly.
The lamb cake is just wonderful. I live here in SLO county so we are already in spring, my daffodils are out and the cymbidium is blooming too….My family started on the East coast though, and I love getting a little nostalgic wisp of home when I read your blog and books. Used to work at Dorn’s a million years ago with your sis:)
Lamb cake mold and Easter Dinner dessert! What a treat that would be!
We are wishing for spring here too! Snow just melted, and today, rain along with snowballs falling from the sky, and high winds…….. It’s Kansas!
Our two kitties love Jack and Kitty! Our Tabbie cat just looks and looks at Jack’s picture on my computer! She thinks he is so handsome:-)!
Love your posts!
We are wishing for spring along with both of you!
Hi Sandy Fox, Can you believe we share your (& mine)name? My formal name is Sondra Fox. Everyone calls me Sandy. So, when I saw Sandy Fox on this blog, I thought, “hey, I didn’t type that!” The only thing that will distinguish us is that I sign off with (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats). Thanks for sharing. (Sandy from Chihuahua Flats)
Susan, I love that Lamb cake pan and the kitchen garden book. I would love to make this at Easter for my grand girls and let them decorate with the coconut. They are 3 & 5 soon to be 6. We made valentine cookies last weekend so I know this would be over the top. Can’t wait to try the receipe. The 6 year old just face timed me and showed me she had lost a front bottom tooth and was hoping the tooth fairy would pay her a visit tonight. Thank you for all you do and thinking of us all the time. I alway look forward to your emails to read the blogs and I go back and reread them again & again. I think I finally have all your books except some of the bitty ones. I would have them too, but the resellers market want too too much.
I love the recipe, must make for Easter.
Thank you for the flowers, birds, lambs-hope! I really needed that. Okay, I can do a little more winter now remembering what’s right around the corner!
Hi Susan! Lamb cakes were always on the Easter dinner table at my Grandmom’s house. Also lamb butter. We would take the dinner food to church to get it blessed on the Saturday before Easter. Spring might be a month away but we enjoyed thundersnow today! Your post brought a breath of spring into my winter-weary home!
Your lamb cake is adorable! Can just see him bouncing thru a field. Thanks for taking us into Spring!
Your lamb cake is so very cute! My mom used to have a lamb butter mold and she made lamb butter for Easter:-). Very fun memory! When I was growing up in the Chicago area there was a gentleman farmer who had lots of property right in the middle of our neighborhood…. He had ponds and rolling hills and lots f farm animals! My favorite was “Lambchops”… A dear friendly lamb that would run to the fence when we called his name and the owner would let us feed him:-). His name was Lambchops because the owner saved him fom being someone’s dinner!
The Kitchen Garden book would be handy – my garden here in Northern California thinks it’s spring already.
Thanks, Susan!
I’m so glad I read your post today! Tasha Tudor’s illustrations and mindset for a simple life inspire me (I have most of her books) my forsythia is blooming, and it’s time for a delicious carrot cake….yum! I’m so glad I know you!!!
Hi Susan,
Love the Spring pictures and wonderful Lamb Cake Tutorial.
We make a butter lamb for Easter, using 2 sticks of cold butter. One horizontal against one upright stick for the neck and head. You have to carve/mold the head. Use cloves for eyes and partial raisin for the nose. Make the fleece by pressing another cold stick of butter through a grater and apply carefully with with a toothpick. Time intensive but fun. Surround with Parsley. Would love to try the cake and relish in Tasha’s illusrations! Thanks for such uplifting inspirations!
Beautiful post love the picture of your house with the sparkling snow.
Oh and the recipes always love the recipes.
But that lamb cake has to be the cutest cake of all so adorable !
Also would love to know where you got the cake pan with the bunny?
Makes me hopeful that spring is on its way!
I will never forgive myself for not coming to see you when you were in Okla. City
it was just so miserable outside I made the decision to stay home.
I’m still mad at myself for not going.
Don’t be mad, it occurred to me not to go too! 🙂 It was not fit fer man nor beast that evening! Scary car ride into the City.
Absolutely precious cake. I love the rabbit mold, too!
OMGosh that is the cuteset cake ever! I love to bake and always do your recipes cause they so delicious ! I gotta have that pan where did you get it? I think for joeys birthday in April I will do all lambs because it’s so springy and cute just like Joey! we did those carrot cake cupcakes before they are great and the kids like to decorate them. Thanks for all the great ideas.
Oh I see I can get it in your blog! Perfect thanks!
Hope you win it, Peggy! Good luck.
Yummmm, even if I don’t win the cute lamb mold, that cake recipe sounds delish. I’ll put it on my list of yumminess to bake up on a lazy weekend.
What a cute cake! I love lemon cake, I’m definitely going to try this.
I have two precious lambs who would love a lamb cake! Thank you Susan for inspiring me all these years and helping to make my house a warm and cozy home for my husband and children. My grandmother gave me your first book while I was still in college. I am 43 now! You have been such a blessing and taught me how to fill these rooms with love!
Makes me so happy to hear that Caroline! I feel like a teacher when I read things like that! Thank you. xoxo
Sue, you are SO a teacher – you have NO idea! ❤️
♥ Such a nice thought!
Susan…Once again you are ever so kind to all us…Lambs and chicks andbunnies and cakes and wonderful thoughts and pictures..(.Your friends home should be on a Christmas Card)…An old Betty Crocker Garden book Oh MY…Good Luck to us all someone is going to be very HAPPY VERY SOON. Thanks Susan P.
My husband’s grandfather received a lamb cake for Easter one year and he thought it was so cute that no one could cut into it. He put it in the china cabinet and there it stayed for years in it’s petrified state!
Oh, I really NEED that lamb cake mold! I’ll have real lambs in a little over a month, but wouldn’t it be fun to bake a lamb cake for the grands at Easter? Any and all things Tasha Tudor are the best. Wonderful giveaway – thanks for offering the chance to win.
I love lambs! what a darling spring cake for Easter
I’m so ready for spring…too much cold and too much snow (even more at this moment). Thanks for the inspiration. I found a lamb pan like this several years ago at a thrift store and made a cake for a dinner with my husband’s family. However, I didn’t have your recipe or wonderful hints back then, and the inevitable happened. Poor Lambie lost his head and fell over! And, I also had to do what you did…glue his head back on with globs of frosting after putting him on his back on the plate. Even with the ridicules, Lambie tasted good but the pan got donated back to the thrift store. You inspired me to try again.
Susan made a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Susan made a little lamb whose sweet as sweet can be!!!! ( Sing to the tune of Mary had a little lamb) ! Love it, adore it all! Keep up the great work, great blog and most of all great girlfriend attitude! So warm and friendly…wish I was a close friend and neighbor, hope yours appreciate you as much as all of us in cyberspace:) Cheers from cold and snowy Colorado!
thank you for your wonderful blog- I love the ribbon on the lamb’s neck!
How fun these last few posts have been!! Looking forward to those warmer days too…the birds have already been singing their hearts out. I want to get cooking and baking after reading and seeing the wonderful pictures. Thank you for such “fun” and beautiful posts….happy tomorrows…
Oh that was fun! And I am so ready for spring – thanks susan!
Such an inspiring post…especially love the kitchen garden book illustrated by one of my favorites…Tasha Tudor
I have been reading Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford. Since my daughters and I visited the area last year, I have become sort of obsessed with the history – especially since my eighth great grandfather arrived on the ship Fortune. Anyway, in looking at the maps in the book, of course there was Martha’s Vineyard, and I thought of you. Reading the history of their hard times in that first winter sort of matched what I see out my widow here in Michigan. But I felt so lucky in my cozy warm house. Next thought was to check in to see what you are up to in your cozy kitchen. Lovely as always.
William Bradford is my relative from a zillion years ago. It’s easy to be related to him because his son very generously had ten children! Read Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. It was fascinating to get the lay of the land when the ship landed. Martha’s Vineyard makes an appearance there too.
Oh yes – that is the best book. Might be good for required reading for young folks in school to get the TRUE picture of what went on – rather than all the myths. I asked one of the “citizens” of Plimouth Plantation if the ship Fortune had arrived yet and if he knew John Adams. Without missing a beat he said yes, it had arrived but that Mr. Adams lived outside the village. That would be true because he would have been a “stranger” not a “saint. We got caught in a downpour in Boston, and I ducked into the Brattle Book Shop. I found Cape Cod by William Martin. How syncranistic
[sp?] was that? A great read.
We have such a wonderful history. I love reading about it and visiting the places. Plimouth Plantation is so interesting.
Beautiful cake and mold – thanks for sharing your recipe. I hope the lamb cake mold finds its new home with me!
Susan, your posts are never too long. Thanks for the great instructions on the lamb cake. It will be time to watch “Easter Parade” before long!
Your friends house looks so warm and inviting and your lamb cake turned out beautiful. I took care of a friends farm when they went away for a long weekend one time and they had an orphaned lamb they called Baby that was raised on a bottle. Even though she lived outside, she had spent time in the house when she was first born so she was always trying to follow me inside and did follow me everywhere as I went around the farm doing all the chores each day. I had such a fun time with her trying to get into everything and I have had a special place in my heart for lambs ever since. Nothing is cuter than seeing the newborn lambs in the fields in the Spring.
I’ve always wished someone would drop of baby lambs in my backyard for the spring and then come pick them up in the winter! I forgot to choose a house next door to a lamb farm!
“If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” Thank you Dear Susan for bringing a little Spring to us with your beautiful blog…blossoms, lambies, chicks, bunnies and dreamy recipes to boot! We are absolutely buried beneath piles of snow, and this was such a treat! Thank you!
Once again Susan, you have shown me something that I now desire that I didn’t even know I wanted! A lamb cake mold, a bunny cake mold, a Kitchen Gardens book, an owl timer, a petty pet dressed up in a tuxedo…..the list continues to grow! Thank you for the inspiration, I love it all!!
I love lambs, you love lambs. I love cake, you love cake. I love garden cookbooks, you love garden cookbooks. I think we may be twins at heart! I do so hope I win, very, very much. Thank you so much for this fun giveaway!
Kindred spirits!
I had my grand babies today, with bad weather today I couldn’t get your blog loaded after several attempts until late after everyone is in bed..I can’t tell you how I loved that so much love the way you show your kitchen and all,makes me feel like I am right there with you.I have 8 grand babie boys they sure would like that cake so cute..I enjoyed that so much Thank you..oxox
Oh my goodness I was needing some spring in my day or should I say night. I am going to have to look for the book and a set of lamb molds. The book book would be for me but the molds would be for my aunt. She raised sheep for years and shaved them every year and sold their wool. But as she got older she said it got harder for her when they died. But to this day she has chickens that have been rescued and she has separate coups for the old ones because the young ones pick on the older ones. We are huge animal lovers in our family along with garden lovers. I wish you could see her place it is wonderful.
As a child a neighbor brought over a lamb cake to our family. Your cake brought back warm memories of how much our family enjoyed that cake. Your posts always seem to touch my heart.
Hej Susan, I did enjoy the lovely winter photo’s from your previous post. But I’m looking forward to Spring. These Spring photo’s are lovely. The little lamb cake looks delicious and so cute. Have a nice day,
Love the (heart) warming blankets you are making for charity . . . beautiful Willy!
The lamb cake is adorable, would love to make that for my 4 grandsons, really cute mold. Is it Spring yet?
This post is so lovely, it breathed a little warmth into my winter-weary heart. Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures and words – and life! – with us here. 🙂
Hi Susan,
Thanks so much for the tutorial. I always thought you put batter in BOTH sides of the pan and couldn’t figure out how THAT worked! LOL, so I have never made a molded cake, now I have the innocent confidence to try. Thank you so much for showing the way.
Spring is coming! The last two mornings as I take the dogs out before dawn I can smell the familiar sweetness in the air that only Spring can bring to the Earth. I’m sure Winter is not quite over but there is HOPE again!!
~ Jamie
I absolutely love Tasha Tudor……. I love cake too, but not as much as Tasha Tudor 🙂
But Susan, what will you do without your lamb cake mold if you give it away??? Joe will be sad!! She turned out so cute…I bet your girlfriend didn’t want to cut it!! My girls would love to help make that cake…kitchen magic!! I have a cookery book by Mary Mason Campbell, illustrated by Tasha and I love it! Yes, we have Spring fever here in Michigan. Yesterday we had heavy snow, then sleet, rain and w~i~n~d!! Next week we are going back down to the single digits AGAIN!!! We can’t take it any more!!!!!! Pass the lemon daisy cake!!!! Pass the chickie cupcakes!!!! Xxxooo.
I have another one of course! I have not lost it completely 🙂
Oh Susan, just what I needed…a taste of spring. It really will come won’t it? Old man winter is starting to wear out his welcome! Your lamb cake is lovely, but the book….that is what caught my eye. We LOVE and I mean LOVE to garden. We have all our seed orders sent out, planning and dreaming of this being the best year in the garden. My father-in-love just lost his sweetheart of 12 years so he is moving north from Florida to live with us. He said he is looking forward to being with us and helping in the garden. This will be a year of lots of new beginnings. Thank you for brightening my day. Hugs.
Such a wonderful post and so many comments…..it takes a while to read them all. But I just have to read them, no matter how many.
Thank you Susan for this touch of spring! While everyone seems to be buried in snow we are just brown and dry, so it is hard to imagine spring here as well.
I made the dancing chicken “pup cakes” once for my grandson Will. He loved them! It has been 2 years since they made the trip to Texas to visit Grandma, but they are supposed to come the end of March! Wouldn’t Will and Ava be surprised by a lamb cake!
And the garden book is wonderful. There is after all “the dream of spring!”
You are too good to us!
Much love, Chris
I have to read them too Chris … so compelling! xoxo Have a wonderful day!
What a darling lamb cake pan
I’d love to win it — if I can.
Then for Easter I would bake
Eight precious grandchildren a special cake.
And if I win the Kitchen Garden book
I’ll read it in my favorite nook.
I love that it’s illustrated by Tasha Tudor
She’s another artist that’s a national treasure!!
Cute you smart girl!
Hi Susan!
Your lamb cake took me back to my childhood, because my grandmother always made one for Easter and it sat in the center of her dining room table surrounded with jelly beans and green tinted coconut. I don’t recall ever eating it, but I don’t think I could because I just sat and stared at the lamb and wondered how she ever managed to get a cake in that shape! As an adult, I tried my hand at it when my kids were young, but with limited success. Your idea for putting in toothpicks and skewers is brilliant! No more headless lambs! Yeah for spring!
Your lamb cake is adorable! You make it look so easy too! I love starting my day with reading your blog. It instantly makes me happy 🙂
I already have the book and love it. It is a small book that takes you from seed to salad. Its little seams burst with goodies not only for the tummy but for the eye. Its illustrations are wonderful. It is one of my favorites that I read over and over again. You are going to make someone very happy :0) .
Just what I was hoping for. It’s quite a little book!
We always had bunny cakes for Easter when growing up. A lamb cake would be a nice change! When I was first married we raised sheep and I spun their wool. It was so relaxing. And then I knit mittens for our children from the wool yarn. And, Tasha Tudor is one of my favorites so the gardening book would be a bonus. We just moved back to MA from Arizona so a garden would be nice. After many years away I could use that book! So Vanna, if you please, choose me!
Thank you, Susan, for the giveaway! I would love the lamb mold but the book even more…old books are my treasures and dearest friends. The best feeling in the world is to go into a used bookstore, sniff the musty used book smell in the air and have a cat or two rub against your legs while you browse.
Thank you Susan for a lovely post. You’ll bring spring on yet. Your directions for molding a cake are wonderful – I’ve never done one and now I feel I could go for it. Love lambs too – we have a farm close by and they open up for the lambing season and the public can come watch the births. There is so much baaing going on, it’s another world.
I collect all things Lamb and just love lemon cake!!! Would love to win the pan and book, and brighten up the rainy Washington days!!! 🙂
Susan, you are the best and know just the right time for a dose of spring! Thanks for keeping me inspired.
I love the lamb cake and the bunny one too. I love lemon and can’t wait to try the recipe for the cake. 🙂
My Granny used to make us a lamb cake, with jelly bean eyes. I know I have that mold somewhere and I am inspired to find it, especially with the toothpick tip!
Good morning Sweet Susan!
I’ve shared my lamb cake experience with you…the one with frantic, wide eyed, pleading kids begging me not to cut up the lamb cake…so I would give the lamb pan to my Auntie Penny. Then she could make it for her grandkids, and see if they have a more, BREAK OUT THE FORKS, reaction! Ha! As for the vintage garding book? Yes please!
Thank you for thinking of us. ❤
❌⭕❌⭕,
Tawni Urrutia in Lodi, Ca
Love this post, Susan. My daughter would like the lamb cake. Can’t wait to try your cake and icing recipe…perfect for Easter!
I love all your pictures if spring! I could look at them all day. Maybe I need to put flowers or pictures of them, all over my house, so I will get out of my winter funk!
I love seeing lambs and pictures of them. They do make me smile and think of spring! The lamb cake is beautiful!
I would love to win this drawing because I know exactly what I would do with the lamb mold and the book. First, I would give the mold to my closest friend, Gail Buss, because she is a wonderful and creative baker. Most importantly, she enjoys baking more than I do! She moved to Florida a few years ago, and I miss having tea with her. She would love the lamb mold.
I would give the book to my cousin Ann, who is like a sister to me. She lives in Massachusetts and both she and her husband enjoy gardening and have the most beautiful gardens at their home and their summer house in Maine. Since they are both retired teachers, they would appreciate this book.
Most importantly, I would be paying it forward by giving these gifts away to people who would love them. One of my favorite former students passed away last year, just a few weeks shy of her 20th birthday, while waiting for a kidney transplant. Colleen was always thinking if others and was studying to be an occupational therapist. I recently received a letter from her mom asking to pay it forward with an act of kindness in memory of Colleen. So that is what I would be doing if I won this contest.
Thank you, Susan, for letting me ramble on. I usually never write long comments.
Ann Beirne
A breath of spring is just what we need here in Michigan! Your lamb cake is wonderful. I am so thankful for the boiled icing recipe as my mom used to make it and it was my favorite. Thanks for the chance for another spectacular giveaway!
I just love the gentleness of your blog. It is a peaceful place on the internet that I love to visit!
Spring? Our frigid temperatures warmed up long enough to bring damaging winds and yes, even tornados, but now we are waiting for more snow. 🙁 At least this little warm snap has allowed us to gather eggs that weren’t frozen solid. This weather is nuts. But I too am ready to dream of a garden and I even bought a nifty indoor green house to start all my veggie seeds. I’m always dreaming of fresh tomatoes! Your recipes are all drool worthy but do you have any gluten free varieties? I also have a question; you know the type of question you are afraid to ask because it might sound dumb? Well, with a mold cake, do you only fill one side? Does the cake expand to fill both sides? I also just want you to know what a treat your blog is. When your name pops up on my e-mail it’s like Christmas. Enjoy your spring dreaming. Soon you will wake up and it will actually be spring!!
What an adorable lamb cake! I remember my mom made something similar to this for easter when I was little. So cute! I love the springy post, but my favorite picture is the last snow covered, cozy looking house. I’ll take as much winter as I can get. Of course, I’m saying this from Florida….but it is Northern Florida and we did get some ice and snow this year. : ) I used to live up North and I miss the snow dearly. Thanks for another wonderful post and giveaway!
I’ve always loved Tasha Tudor’s work, and didn’t know about this book! The lamb cake is so sweet! My youngest cat (1 yr old) is going bonkers over the birds! She is looking everywhere, running to the windows, where she can see it’s plainly snowing some more…. no birds here. She is still a kitten at heart. My older girl, Abby, is soundly sleeping in the big box I made for the two of them on a book shelf near my desk. A few months ago, they were both making me bonkers by competing for the best place to sit on my desk, causing a whole lot of growling and slapping! So, I measured my shelf, found a rubbermaid box that fits almost exactly, and lined it with their favorite crocheted blankets. Abby claimed it first, but then Pippa said “it’s mine!” The box is close enough that I can pet them from my chair, and no more cat fights. I sound like a crazy cat lady… Really, I’m not, well, maybe just a little. I really enjoyed all the photos and your attempt to distract us from the still falling snow!
Crazy and Cat Lady do not belong in the same sentence! 🙂
You have inspired me to bake a cake! I love to look at your pictures of the snow but I am so happy I don’t have to live in it. Three years in Iceland was enough to last me for the rest of my life!
Susan, I can see how creative you could be with this amazing lamb cake (eyes, nose, etc.) this is just adorable! You did a great job. Patience really does pay off!
I am IN for the drawing! I have a friend who would LOVE that cake! And that book is very vintage and so special. I have my Grandmothers Betty Crocker cookbook and it very well may be a first edition. Treasured!!
While I am still enjoying my favorite season and all the snow, I look forward to spring’s “new beginning”. It always is like a soul cleanse!
Still very happy I got to meet you last weekend. Keep looking at the pictures. A wonderful day all around!! Thanks for being there.
No snow in south Texas, just a “cooler spring” all winter! So, thank you Susan, for your wonderful pictures and delicious recipes. I love them, and your great give-a-ways! Always a delight to “visit” with you in your lovely home.
Happy Spring to all.
It would be wonderful to win the Betty Crocker’s Garden Kitchen book and lamb cake mold. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and my toes too, and maybe I’ll be lucky enough to hear from you!
The recipe for the Lemon Daisy Lamb Cake looks wonderful. The lamb mold is darling, soo cute. Would love to win the Kitchen Gardens book, I also love Tasha Tudor. Your post always makes my day… Thank you.