PrintNeed a decorative substitute for coconut
You know those cakes in the shape of lambs that appear at Easter? Well, I bought a mold last year when they were on sale after the holiday, and it's getting close to the time when I'll be using it.
Most of the cakes I've seen have been covered in white coconut, to simulate the wool. But I hate coconut. Despise. Ptui. And hubby's not a big fan, either.
Any ideas what I could use instead? And no white chocolate curls. One person who will be consuming the lamb with us doesn't like chocolate of any type.
It doesn't necessarily have to be white. But it has to be edible and compatible with the cake. So, no grated parm :-)
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27 Comments:
Grated white chocolate?
GumbeauxGal at 11:36PM on 02/27/08
Not all bunnies are pure white. How about nuts?
PerkyMac at 11:42PM on 02/27/08
LAMBS.....DUH! I promise - I did read the whole thing. I make a bunny cake and had that on the brain I guess. Nuts would still work. ;)
PerkyMac at 11:44PM on 02/27/08
Frosting?
GumbeauxGal at 11:47PM on 02/27/08
Slivered almonds? Cotton candy? Lots of tiny marshmallows?
seyo at 11:52PM on 02/27/08
I was thinking almonds, grated. Or shredded somehow...I've never tried shredding nuts...do you think that would work, or would I end up with almond butter (which I would eat, just to get rid of the evidence!)
dbcurrie at 11:53PM on 02/27/08
Mashed potatoes? (just kidding)
Miniature marshmallows.
Blanche some almonds, then grind them.
Cream cheese frosting. Not fuzzy, but snowy white and you can sort of play around and "texturize" it.
Meringue.
LoCo at 12:00AM on 02/28/08
At Christmas I buy all kinds of ground nuts - almonds, pecans, walnuts. I've never tried to shred a nut, but slivered almonds and sliced almonds would be very decorative, as would whole almonds.
PerkyMac at 12:09AM on 02/28/08
Maybe I'll skip the cake, make a lamb-shaped meatloaf, and then cover it with mashed potatoes and then sprinkle with grated cheese! Mmmmmm.....
Nah....that would be too weird, even for me.
dbcurrie at 12:11AM on 02/28/08
How about licorice gumdrops? You could have a baa-baa-black-sheep?
LoCo at 12:11AM on 02/28/08
Slivered almonds would be very pretty....though it would probably put me in mind of a hedgehog. lol.
jazzinx at 12:14AM on 02/28/08
Nah, db, I think you're on to something with that meatloaf idea. BUT, you MUST use ground lamb to make it...
Bawahahahahahaha....
LoCo at 12:53AM on 02/28/08
Some one said meringue ... a close relative is seven-minute icing. Basically a meringue-marshmallow type icing. You could use a fork to pull it into peaks.
kjgibson at 1:12AM on 02/28/08
sliced almonds
JerzeeTomato at 1:14AM on 02/28/08
Lol make a sheared lamb with pink icing
stumbler02 at 3:33AM on 02/28/08
How about avoiding trying to simulate lambs' wool altogether and after frosting it in a white cream cheese (or your choice) icing, cover it with spring flowers made of fondant or piped colored icing? You could add "grass" coming up the bottom edge, too. Think "Hallmark card" - - ribbons, flowers, etc all of icing.
Fresh flowers tucked around the base would be pretty, too. Maybe there's some you could even "candy' to decorate this little lamb.
moibec at 7:37AM on 02/28/08
Some great suggestions here ... I especially like the sheared lamb idea.
White or chocolate sprinkles would also work.
SSMom at 7:38AM on 02/28/08
I thought about slivered almonds. Then I decided your lamb might look like a porcupine.
I thought about sliced almonds. Lamb might look like an amphibian - "Is it a lamb? Is it a fish? It's a FLAM!"
I you could paint your finished lamb cake with corn syrup. I did this when I decorated a cake for my daughter's 2nd birthday - the icing wouldn't stick to the cake. Then attach white chocolate curls to it by dropping them onto the sticky cake. Granted, it might look like a lamb with a perm but at least no one would be baiting a hook to catch it.
Short of that, I'd use a 233 or 234 decorating tip and pipe wooly hair all over the lamb. This will take some time but it would be worth it!
Happy Decorating!! :D :D :D
chiff0nade at 9:02AM on 02/28/08
As mentioned above, mini-marshmellows and sliced almonds are good ideas.
You could also go for dazzle and dust the cake with white sparkling sugar. A sparkling lamb cake could really bring out the etherealness of The Lamb. Make a holy cake!
Susquehanna at 9:13AM on 02/28/08
@db - the lamb shaped meatloaf with mashed potato frosting is not at all weird. You should make it immediately and then rush it over to my house. Because that? Very neat idea. I'm totally doing that if I can find a lamb shape mold. @LoCo's totally right about using ground lamb, but I like lamb only one way - on a chop, medium rare, so it won't work at my house.
chisai at 9:28AM on 02/28/08
I like Susquehanna's idea of the sparking sugar. Or maybe just white sprinkles, like the kind on donuts?
@chisai, you and I are in complete agreement about the lamb issue. Mine, on a rack, medium rare. But I'd make the lamb loaf if my somewhat strange family was coming... nobody would eat it, but my dad in particular would die of hysterics at the idea of a lamb loaf shaped like a lamb. In fact, I'm thinking there's a whole theme here. A duck mold filled with duck confit. A bunny mold filled with rabbit. A piglet mold filled with suckling pig... omg...
I think I'd better stop. I'm nowhere near my quota of caffeine this morning. Can you tell?
LoCo at 10:23AM on 02/28/08
i second the 7-minute frosting approach for ease and taste. You can easily get it fluffy (think of the top of a lemon meringue pie)
sprinkles would be my next choice, but they might be overly sweet, depending on your guests.
renzata at 1:01PM on 02/28/08
how about some curls of shaved white chocolate on the white frosting to give it some texture.
midgepingleton at 5:59PM on 02/28/08
I would frost it, then sprinkle it with a little raw sugar. A little.
I mean, a white lamb-shaped cake will probably get the message across. You could do an Easter-colored lamb, too, to open up other ingredients. Fruit zest! Whee!
KarynMC at 10:24AM on 02/29/08
I've seen them look cute covered with marshmellows or white chocolate curls.
peachfish at 12:19PM on 02/29/08
I'm surprised no one has mentioned whipped cream. You could pipe it to look just like wooly fur and decorate with mini marshmallows and nuts to your hearts content.
Or......7 minute frosting.
PerkyMac at 12:30PM on 02/29/08
Is this the mold style?
http://www.confectioneryhouse.com/product.php?productid=2863&cat=263&page=1
I'm going to fess up to being a person who LOVES dessert (kind of an unpopular opinion, I know ;) but some of the ideas are so sweet they make my (still intact) teeth hurt.
I think that icing with marshmellows or candy might be too much if you want people to eat it--I'm so glad to represent as a fellow coconut hater (it looks like brains to me, and has the texture of sugared stewed vegetables) and come to think of it, icing + coconut must be REALLY sweet.
Why not just do white cake with buttercream, or spice or banana cake the cream cheese icing? If you use a sweeter cake, even powdered white sugar sans icing would be fine.
The only unusal option I can think of is to try a crumb cake, with the cake crumbs as the wool, or to skip baking all together, and just use the mold for a spread, like cream cheese, and serve with bread, bagels, nut breads, etc.
I mean, I could suggest white jelly beans, non-chocolate fondant, chopped up white-colored cookies, but on top of icing I think that would be too sweet. Even for me.
HeartofGlass at 1:12PM on 02/29/08