Now to make some cupcakes for Easter tomorrow....

I baked a lamb cake tonight for Easter. Not a cake made of lamb; a regular cake baked in a metal mold formed to look like a lamb. It's a family tradition/joke. When I was a kid, my mom used to make it, and it never baked all the way through the center, so it was disgusting and no one ate it, but yet she made it every year. And then she eventually stopped when I was in high school or college.

When I was out of college, I asked her for the lamb mold, because I wanted to try my hand at the cake. Turns out, she had been making the cake with a pound cake recipe -- no wonder it didn't bake through! Way too dense!

So I made it with regular white cake, and it turned out wonderfully. But the first year I made it, the extended family was dubious and mockful, until my cousin decided to eat the lamb's head, and pronounced it thoroughly baked and quite tasty.

So I've made it most years since then, and even though I proved that *my* lamb cake is fully baked, it still gets mocked, simply because 10-15 years of a half-baked lamb cake really ingrains the mocking in my family.

I've always made it as a white cake, with white frosting and coconut shavings for the wool. I occasionally threaten to make a devil's food cake with chocolate frosting -- a black sheep, if you will -- but have never followed through.

This year's lamb? Red velvet cake. I'm going to frost it white, though, with coconut shavings, like always, because I want to see the reaction when the first person cuts it and sees red innards. There will be pictures.

have an adorable birthday Pete

no hamentaschen? Sacrelige!

Fay, you are completely lovely and one of the women who makes me wish that I were attracted to women , because then I would have a shot at being with someone wonderful like you. You are gorgeous, however many stone.

I have a great picture of my sister stabbing a lamb cake with homicidal glee....

Steph, I love your idea. Red velvet lamb!!! I'm trying to decide fi I need to go to the grocery store--I might need more cupcake holder paper things (um...word for those, I have lost). But I'm feeling too lazy. And if I go, I will get sucked into buying other things. OTOH, coconut on the cupcakes sounds adorable...

Lamb cake's a tradition in my family too. With jellybean eyes!

With jellybean eyes!

I use jellybeans for eyes (and nose) if I can scam 3 jellybeans from a co-worker or friend, since I strongly dislike jellybeans and don't want to buy a whole bag of them just to use 3 for a cake.

So this year I bought M&Ms for the eyes and nose. I *know* we'll eat the rest!

I'm looking forward to the reactions to the bloody lamb cake...

DH has Easter dinner duty, because I feel like singing at three back-to-back Easter services earns me the right to put my feet up a bit. He has a pork roast brining, adapted from this Mark Bittman recipe because we couldn't find an uncured ham at QFC or Whole Foods yesterday: [link]

Only of course today when I went by the Asian market around the corner from our house because we were out of eggs, what should I spot in the meat aisle but uncured hams for about a third of the price per pound DH paid at Whole Paycheck.

Dessert will be simple--store-bought angel food cake with strawberries.

I can't wait to see the bloody lamb pictures

Happy birthday, Pete!

And Kristin, I'm glad that Byron is feeling a bit better.