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Easter Recipe
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LAMB AND BUNNY CAKES FOR EASTER
(FROM "THE JOY OF COOKING")

About Two-Piece Cake Molds:

Make sure that your molds are prepared properly. Lambs and bunnies need firm, compact batters.

This recipe for white cakes is amazing: it can be multiplied by 8 and still give as good a result when made in the smaller quantity below.

Two 9-inch round pans are needed. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Have all ingredients at about 70 degrees.

Sift before measuring:
2-1/4 cups cake flour
Resift with:
2-1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream until fluffy:
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
Combine:
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add the sifted ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the liquid combination. Stir the batter until smooth after each addition.

Whip until stiff, but not dry:
4 egg whites

Fold them lightly into the batter and bake in layers, about 25 minutes.



Keep nuts, raisins, etc., for decorations, rather than using them in the batter itself, because these solid ingredients, while they make the cake more interesting, tend to break down the tensile strength of the batter. Ground spices, however, are a good addition. Grease the mold with unsalted fat or oil. Use a pastry brush and be rather lavish. Then dust the greased surface with flour, reversing the mold to get rid of any excess. Leftover batter may be used for cupcakes or cake eggs. If the mold has steam vents, fill the solid section with the batter to just below the joint.

Using the following directions, successful baking can be accomplished even when there are no steam vents. Move a wooden spoon gently through the batter to release any air bubbles. Be careful not to disturb the greased and floured surface of the mold. You may insert wooden picks into the snout and into the ears where they join the head, but be sure to remove the picks when you cut the cake. Put the lid on the mold, making sure it locks, and tie or wire together so the steam of the rising batter will not force the two sections apart.

To bake, put the filled mold on a cookie sheet in a 375 degree preheated oven for about 1 hour. Test as you would for any cake, inserting a thin metal skewer or wooden pick through a steam vent. Put the cake, still in the mold, on a rack for about 15 minutes. Carefully remove the top of the mold. Before you separate the cake from the bottom, let it continue to cool about 5 minutes more to let all the steam escape and to allow the cake to firm up a little. After removing, continue to cool on a rack. Do not try to let it sit upright until it is cold. If the cake has constitutional weaknesses, reinforce it with a wooden or metal skewer before icing.

Ice with Boiled White Icing, Seven-Minute White Icing. As a variation to coat a bunny mold, you mauy use caramel icing. Or if you are in a hurry, try French icing. These recipes are at the bottom of this page. Increase the recipes by half for a heavy coating.

For woolly or angora effects, press into the icing: 1/2 to 1 cup shredded coconut.

To accentuate the features, use: Raisins, nuts, cherries, citron, and gumdrops

Surrounds your animals with seasonal flowers, ferns, and cake eggs decorated with icings of different colors (see the recipe below for Angel Cake balls).

BOILED WHITE ICING (about 2 cups)
Stir until the sugar is dissolved and bring to a boil:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
Cover and cook about 3 minutes, until the steam has washed down any crystals which may have formed on the sides of the pan. Uncover and cook to 238-240 degrees. At that temperature the syrup will spin a very thin thread on the end of a coarser thread. This final thread will almost disappear, like a self-consuming spider web.
Whip until frothy:
2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
Add the syrup in a thin stream, whipping eggs constantly.
When these ingredients are all combined, add:
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar or a few drops of lemon juice 1 teaspoon of vanilla

SEVEN-MINUTE WHITE ICING (almost 2 cups)
I. Place on the top of a double boiler and beat until thoroughly blended:
2 unbeaten eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
5 tablespoons cold water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1-1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
Place these ingredients over rapidly boiling water. Beat them constantly with a rotary beater or a whire whisk for 7 minutes. Remove icing from heat.
Add:
1 teaspoon vanilla
Continue beating until the icing is the right consistency for spreading.
You may add to it at this point:
1/2 cup chopped nutmeats or grated coconut or 1 stick crushed peppermint candy.

II. Made with an electric mixer.
Stir, then boil in a covered pan until the sugar is dissolved:
3 tablespoons hot water
1 cup confectioners' sugar
Place in a small mixing bowl:
1 unbeaten egg white
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Add the hot syrup. Beat these ingredients at high speed until the icing is the right consistency to spread, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add while beating:
1 teaspoon vanilla

CARAMEL ICING (About 1-1/2 cups)
Stir until the sugar is dissolved:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup cream or 1/2 cup butter plus 1/2 cup milk
Cover and cook about 3 minutes or until the steam has washed down any crystals that may have formed on the sides of the pan. Uncover and cook without stirring to 238 to 240 degrees.
Add:
3 tablespoons butter
Remove the icing from the heat and cool to 110 degrees. Add:
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the icing until thick and creamy. If it becomes too heavy, thin it with a little cream until it is of spreading consistency.

FRENCH ICING (About 1-1/2 cups)
Sift:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
Beat until soft:
1/4 cup butter
Add the sugar gradually. Blend these ingredients until creamy.
Beat in:
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Place the mixture over, not in, boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes.

ANGEL CAKE BALLS (FOR CAKE EGGS)
Use either the recipe for Angel Cake or Flavored Angel Cake below.

ANGEL CAKE RECIPE #1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift twice:
1-1/4 cups sugar
Sift separately before measuring:
1 cup cake flour
Resift the flour 3 times with 1/4 cup of the sifted sugar and:
1/2 teaspoon salt
Whip until foamy:
1-1/4 cups egg whites; about 10 egg whites in all
2 tablespoons water or 1 tablespoon water and 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Add:
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Whip the egg whites until stiff, but not dry.
Fold in:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Gradually whip in, about 1 tablespoon at a time, the remaining sifted sugar. Sift about 1/4 cup of the flour and sugar mixture over the batter. Fold it in gently and briefly. Continue until all the mixture is used.

ANGEL CAKE RECIPE #2
This is an electric mixer method.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift, then measure:
1 cup cake flour
Add and resift 6 times:
1/2 cup sugar or confectioners' sugar
Combine:
1-1/2 cups egg whites, 10 to 12 egg whites in all
2-1/2 tablespoons cold water
1-1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract or 1-2 drops anise flavoring
1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat until stiff, but not dry. Stop while the mixture is still glossy.
Fold in, about 2 tablespoons at a time:
1 cup sifted sugar
Fold in the flour and sugar mixture lightly, a little at a time.

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Designed by Micki
March 2000
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