Easter Lamb Cake

This is THE Easter Lamb Cake, 2009 version.

We had friends over to celebrate Easter with us last night and we had a good laugh over the "lamb cake." When I had invited them over to have lamb cake with us it seems they were hesitant and unsure what they would be in for. (I failed to explain that the cake was shaped like a lamb, not made out of lamb!)

"Lamb cake" is such a familiar expression to me... literally a FAMILY expression. I suspect if you ask any of my "near" Lamoreux relations, they will have a mental picture at the words "lamb cake." My Dad's mother, my Grandma Lamoreux, made "lamb cakes" for Easter. My recollection is that she would make a cake for each of her son's families living close at-hand: John's family and ours. Her lamb cakes were special, with green flaked coconut for grass and jelly beans scattered along the plate. They had fancy rosebud garlands and a rosebud crown. Sometimes they would have a bell tied round their neck with silky pastel ribbon. The cakes were lovely to look at and admire. There is a photo of me as a baby sitting on the counter beside the lamb cake. . . I suspect it was taken in appreciation of Grandma's efforts and to document the "lamb cake" tradition. These cakes were left out for days on end for everyone to admire. By the time someone was daring enough to actually CUT into to cake it would be nearly impossible. We never ATE the lamb cakes. (My sister and I tried once and it was terrible.)

My grandmother passed away many years ago, when I was in jr. high school. Years after that, when I was a young married mother, I inquired about the lamb cake. My Aunt Gretchen had received the mold and had been carrying on the tradition. For a few years we took turns sharing the mold. Then, the mold was given to me with the explanation and hope that I would enjoy making lamb cakes for my own family. The mold seemed so small to me, inside a large cardboard box labeled "lamb mold" on the outside. Best of all, my aunt included two yellowed recipes. One had my grandmother's handwritten notes on it and the other was typewritten on her old typewriter. I love those papers.

I'll admit that my lamb cake isn't beautiful. But it IS edible, and I've come a long way! Last night we laughed over one year's cake that we couldn't keep upright. B and I tried inserting toothpicks and skewers in critical points to keep the lamb from tipping over. We even gentled some of the picks with soft, white marshmallows on the end. We've put skewers down through the head and neck several times (sounds morbid, doesn't it?); Grandma recommended this on the recipe.

One year, I took the Lamb Cake to an Easter fellowship meal. This was a nice, hot, spring day in humid Florida. On the way there I despaired as the icing melted right off the lamb before my very eyes. (I'm pretty sure I cried.) I've taken a cake decorating class (which ironically led me to JuicePlus), but am really not very adept with the techniques. It just takes so darn long to pre-make all those flowers! And I have issues with crisco and cake flower. Even though we're eating cake with buttercream icing, at least our cake was made with freshly milled whole wheat and the butter is real!

It brought me great joy last night to see my family and our friends all enjoying the Lamb Cake- the wonder of a cake shaped like a lamb, the smell of the sugar (yes, my children loved to smell the cake!), as well as the pleasure of eating good cake and icing. I thought of my grandmother and of my family, and I smiled.