Author: denisemor

Yesterday I set out to try my hand at baking a lamb cake.

We recently got the lamb cake pan re-seasoned, and I was anxious to give it a go.

Armed with what is supposed to be the original recipe that came with the Wagner cast iron lamb molds.

Recipe For One Cake

1-1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk
1 tsp soda
a little salt
2-1/2 cups flour
1 cup nuts
1 tsp cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg (I used 1 tsp cinn, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves)
1 cup raisins
1 tsp baking powder
1 skewer and 2 toothpicks
Cream sugar, butter and eggs, add milk, soda, flour, salt and spices. Mix well without
beating. Fill face and ears of mould (these must not have nuts or raisins in them).
Add nuts and raisins chopped fine and floured, and the baking powder.
Fill pan level, place a toothpick in each ear and the skewer in the neck.
Fit upper pan on and bake in moderate oven for one hour or more, or until upper pan comes
off easily. Let cool in lower pan.

Icing
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup water
whites of two eggs
flavoring
1/4 lb. shredded coconut

Boil sugar and water until it threads. Beat whites of two eggs stiff, pour syrup over eggs,
beat until cool. Ice cake all over and throw on the coconut. Use raisins for the eyes and a
piece of candied cherry or raisin for the mouth.

I prepared the mold well with crisco and flour

Filled the head and neck first and reinforced with a chopstick and two toothpicks

then filled the rest of the front mold, placed the back on top, and baked at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.

It came out of the mold cleanly (yay!)


But I should have left it in the oven longer.
The inside was not baked. 🙁

So I didn’t bother to frost it.

But what was baked was very tasty. Spicy and sweet.
And the head and neck very very solid with their reinforcements baked in.

I think that in addition to not baking it long enough, I might have overfilled the front mold as well, which kept the center from being able to cook correctly. (there are no vent holes in this mold)

I’ll give it another try sometime very soon. And hopefully have a chance to try the italian meringue frosting as well!

Vest update:
It’s off the needles!

I have quite a bit of tidying to do- steek edges and loose ends, buttons and button loops, then blocking. But I’m really pleased with how it’s coming together!

I’m still ribbing, but have written up my recipe for the vest, so thought I would share it here:

Stranded Shawl-collared Vest

Needles: size 3 (or whatever works for you) circulars, in 36” and 16” lengths

Gauge approx. 6 st/in, 6 rows/in

Approx. hip/chest measurement 42”

Cast on 254 stitches and place markers for front steek (10 stitches) and side panels (7 stitches each)

Note: Front steek stitches replace 10 colorwork pattern stitches in center front.

Work even in charted pattern for 2.5-3 inches (depending on desired length) then begin waist shaping.

colorwork motif:

Decrease each side of side panels every 4th round, 4 times. (-4 stitches each decrease round, total -16 stitches)

Knit even in established pattern for 1.5-2 inches, then continue waist shaping.

Increase (in pattern) each side of side panels every 6th round, 4 times (+4 stitches each increase round, total +16 stitches)

Continue knitting even in pattern to desired underarm length.

Once you reach the underarms, knit a round in pattern binding off the side panel stitches as you go.

In the next round, cast on 7 steek stitches in place of the underarm stitches that were bound off the previous round.

Next round, begin shaping armholes and v-neck

At the same time, decrease one stitch on each side of the armhole steek stitches every round for 5 rounds, and

Decrease one stitch on each side of the front center steek every 3rd round 7 times, then every 4th round 5 times.

Knit even in pattern until about 1.25 inches short of desired armhole depth. At this point, put front stitches (and half of steek stitches on each side panel) on a holder (or another circular needle) and work short rows back and forth across back stopping short of each edge by 4, then 8, then 12 stitches to create a slight slope to the shoulders. Put back stitches on yarn to hold.

Now put front stitches on 16” circular needle and join to work in the round. Continue to work even in pattern for about 2.5 inches, then work shoulder shaping short rows back and forth across front, stopping short of each edge by 4, then 8, then 12 stitches to create a slight slope to the shoulders. Put front stitches on yarn to hold.

Reinforce (crochet, machine sewing, whatever you’re comfortable with) and then cut the front and armhole steeks. Fold under raw edges and sew down by hand (I used my background color yarn).

Use three-needle bind off to join shoulders.

With yarn held double, pick up stitches along edge of armholes (betwee body stitches and steek stitches) and purl two rows, then cast off.

With yarn held double, pick up stitches along fronts and neck (between body stitches and steek stitches )to work shawl collar and button band.

Collar/button band setup row: k4, k2tog across wrong side, resulting in purl bumps that sit right up against the edge of the body of the vest and form a nice clean little edge. Turn, and work in K1P1 rib to center of back neck.

Shawl collar directions: Continuing in K1P1 rib work to end of back neck stitches, wrap next stitch and turn. Continue in this manner working two stitches more at the end of each row until you have eight wraps on each side of the collar.

Then begin working three more stitches at the end of each row before wrapping and turning. Continue in this manner until you reach the beginning of the V-neck shaping.

End of short row collar shaping.

Continue in 1X1 rib knitting full rows from end to end to achieve desired depth of button band.

Cast off with regular firm bind off from bottom to start of collar shaping, then with Jeni’s surprisingly stretchy bind off for the collar, and back to the firm bind off for the rest of the other side button band.

Place 4 or 5 markers on each side for buttons and button loops.

Take about 12-15’ lengths of yarn and twist tightly and let double back on itself to create a tight 2-ply cord. Use these lengths to create button loops, affixing them to button band by inserting them with a darning needle perpendicularly through the edge and back towards the selvage, securing them near the selvage edge by weaving in to neighboring stitches.

Sew buttons on opposite side, near base of button band, and reinforce with smaller flat buttons on reverse.

Sew down steek selvages flat on inside of garment, tucking loose ends underneath.

Weave in any loose ends.

Voila!

We are steeked!

And well into the bottom edge ribbing.

A couple more rows here and then I’ll pick up stitches along the fronts and neck to work the collar- also in a 1X1 rib.

I’ve always loved using ribbing in garments, but it’s only been since I’ve learned to Norwegian Purl that I’ve actually enjoyed executing the ribbing itself.

So much smoother and efficient now that I’m not moving the working yarn back to front to back.

But as much I’m still enjoying the Fabulous Technicolor DreamVest process, I am kind of itching to start another project.
A SEWING project.

I just dicovered noodlehead and am really digging her cool bag designs and tutorials.

Think I’m going to have to give her patterns a try. You can never have too many project bags, right?

Oh My!

The fabulous technicolor dream vest is coming along nicely.

I’ve decided to do a little something different with this vest from the original.
No saddle shoulders this time (those weren’t part of original plan anyway).
But I still want to get the depth on the neck opening, because I really like how the shawl collar worked out.

In order to hopefully create the same sort of fit, I’m working the fronts about 2 inches longer than the back, so that the fronts will wrap over the top of the shoulder and the seam will be at the top of the back.

First I worked some short rows on each side of the back to slope the shoulders off just a bit

Then the back stitches (plus half of the steek stitches for each armhole) all went on a holder for now.

Moved the front stitches (and the other half of the steek stitches) to a smaller length circular needle, and am now continuing to work in the round for about 2.5 inches (which is about the width of the saddles on the original vest)

So it looks a little weird right now.
With some luck, it will be vest-shaped once the steeks are cut 🙂

Also wanted to give a shout out to the chigs, who have come through our icky winter weather and started laying again

Today was our first 6-egg day in quite a while.
Here’s hoping that the thaw (and egg production) continues!