lambie cake

meet my lambie cake. and emmy's too, since she helped. lamb cakes are an east coast thing (i think). they're traditionally decorated with buttercream and rest in a bed of green coconut and jelly beans. they're often used as the centerpiece at easter dinner. my mom sent me our old lamb cake pan and i've been itching to play around with marshmallow fondant (aka MMF-it's so much tastier and easier than traditional fondant), so i combined the two and we came up with this pretty lady. we used dark chocolate ganache to coat the lamb before applying the fondant. it's easy and tastes a gazillion times better than buttercream. we spent about three hours rolling and coiling and attaching and dying the fondant. it took us both back to our ceramic and pottery days, which were really fun and really frustrating at the same time. we may like cake decorating a little better. it's temporary, but at least this final product doesn't have to go through a kiln that may or may not obliterate all the hard work.



since i was playing around with fondant for the first time i didn't want to mess around with scratch cake-making. the lamb cake requires a pretty heavy cake, like pound cake (but i didn't want to make pound cake), and i don't have a scratch recipe that i knew would do the trick. so, i did some googling (how to improve a cake mix) and combined every suggestion/addition/modification i found to create my own super dense, rich, and moist cake.

here's the recipe for...

the edible cake mix cake. the "i just threw in the cow" cake. the far-from-vegan cake. chocolate chip cookie cake. i don't know what to call it, but believe me, it's good.

1 box french vanilla cake mix

1 box french vanilla instant pudding mix

1 1/4 cup coconut milk
1/3  cup melted butter 

2 T vanilla 

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 a bag of chocolate chips (i use ghirardelli 60% cacao)

mix in bowl, throw in a pan (if you are using the lambie pan follow the instructions to the T!) and bake according to package directions. allow to cool.

top with ganache:

bring 1/2 cup heavy cream just to a boil and pour over 1/2 bag of chocolate chips (in a bowl). let sit for a minute to allow chocolate to melt, then stir briskly till the mixture becomes smooth and even without any lumps.

pour the ganache over the cake.

eat it. (you'll need a big glass of milk. hey, more cow!)

then hit the gym.

and eat some more.