Easter - A Time for Family, Love and The Traditional "Easter Lamb Cake"

From Bucks County, Pennsylvania
By Carrie J. Gamble

Easter holds such beautiful memories from my childhood. Every year we would drive “over the river and through the woods” to my grandmother's house. There was a feeling of excitement in the anticipation of the traditional Easter Egg Hunt. With eleven grandchildren that was a lot of Easter eggs! As much as grandmom was an expert in the kitchen, Grandpop von Hohen was a expert Easter egg hider! He got such a kick out of it! There was always “one more egg” which no one could find. It would usually turn up in a basket grandpop had tied to the ropes of the flagpole and hoisted to the top of the pole! We'd all laugh when the older cousins would finally discover its location and try to get it down.

This special holiday comes at a most wonderful time of year – spring time! Adding to the fun and festive atmosphere of the day was the beauty of my grandmother's gardens. There were bulbs galore! All different varieties and colors of daffodils, tulips and narcissus. There was also a lovely backdrop of the forsythia hedge. Oh, and who could forget those fuzzy pussy willows! We'd be running around the yard in our Easter bonnets and it felt more like we were in the middle of a fairytale. The beauty around us seemed almost magical.

The beauty of the outside graced the inside of grandmom and grandpop's cozy home with colorful floral arrangements scattered throughout the dining and living rooms. But what always graced the center of the Easter Sunday Dinner table? It was the traditional Easter Lamb Cake. This was a pound cake baked in a lamb shaped mold and covered with white frosting and coconut with jelly beans for the eyes, nose and mouth. The silver tray it rested on was beautifully decorated with paper doilies, green Easter grass and sprinkled with colorful hard boiled eggs and all types of Easter candy – jelly beans, chocolate butter creams and coconut nests are the ones I remember most.

I hope you are making beautiful memories for your children and grandchildren. If not, why not start now? They will be so impressed with YOUR Easter Lamb Cake as a centerpiece to your holiday table. Below is the recipe for the Easter Lamb Cake. Enjoy!

Best Pound Cake:

Take 2/3 cup sweet butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar and mix together until creamy. Add teaspoon lemon rind, 1 teaspoon vanilla, pinch of mace or nutmeg and 1 jigger (equals 1 shot) of rum. Sift 2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Blend with butter and sugar mixture with 2/3 cup milk. When blended add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating each one in well. If preferred add 1/2 cup nuts or currants. Pour into a buttered and floured lamb shaped mold and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Fluffy White Frosting:
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar, cream of tartar, 1/3 cup water and a dash salt in a saucepan. Cook and stir until bubbly and sugar dissolves. In a large bowl combine egg whites and vanilla. Add sugar syrup very slowly to unbeaten egg whites while beating constantly at high speed about 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. When cool, frost the cake and sprinkle with coconut. Make eyes, nose and mouth with appropriate colored jelly beans.

Carrie J. Gamble is co-author, editor and publisher of Grandmother's Cookbook, a collection of recipes, treasured memories, wildflower watercolors and feelings from the heart. Details about the cookbook and more delicious recipes of Carrie's grandmother, Elizabeth Rose von Hohen, can be found on their website. You'll experience “living life the old fashioned way” with Grandmother's Cookbook. Visit the website and download FREE recipes and “A Family Love Letter” chapter at http://www.grandmotherscookbook.com. Enjoy!