The Lamb Experiment

One of the highlights of my Mom's baking career was her Easter lamb .It was a super moist, super dense cake covered in icing and coconut. She made several - for my cousins, neighbors, friends. Everyone enjoyed theirs, going wild for the jellybeans that wreathed it or the buttery icing layer/
Now it's my turn.

This is the lamb - Lambie

It's a metal tin from Wilton and it's close to forty years old. The company still makes them and they $16.97 on Amazon, a good price for something that will last decades.With the lamb came the instructions for baking and icing it>There was also an extra - my Mom's version of the cake recipe written in her enviable neat and concise handwriting. She always used Dream Whip which was responsible for the cake's moistness. I recently bought a package.

It can be used on its' own as a whipped topping along with dense, rich cakes. Dream Whip  can also be  used as an icing, mixed with cold milk and any pudding mix. I may go this route because the Wilton icing has both butter and vegetable shortening. I did order a complete set of Wilton  icing nozzles and icing bags from Amazon. I may try half buttercream and half Dream Whip icings when I bake this for my friends' Greek Orthodox Easter.

Then there's the cake mix.My Mom always swore by Pillsbury but as we all know I'm more a Duncan Hines kind of baker. I bought their French vanilla flavor.

I'd recommend a plain flavor without any additions like their butter flavor which needs a stick or two of butter. I may make the next cakes (remember the first one is the tester cake) in chocolate.I saw one on the internet with an uniced face and it looked pretty much like a real lamb.

This is going to be a daunting experiment to say the least. I look forward to baking the challenge. It is a complicated bake and finishing but I am up to it. Let's hope the creative acorn doesn't fall far from the creative tree.

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