Homan at Home

I won’t lie, I’m pretty proud of this one. Just look at how cute and fluffy this little guy is! And he was so, so yummy (is that mean? I hope not. He is a cake…).

I love watching videos of people making pull-apart cakes. There’s this one that comes across my Facebook feed every once in a while with several cakes, including a dress, an owl, and my favorite, the dang cutest flamingo ever. I watch it every time it comes around.

And so, this year I decided to try my hand at inventing my own. It’s kind of fun, and maybe just a little frustrating. I started with all 24 cupcakes (1 cake mix’s worth), and just moved them around, trying to visualize what it would look like with frosting. This is how we learned that Diane is not a visual person. I spent nearly an hour moving those cupcakes around until I finally saw it. Then it was just a matter of frosting and voila! A lovely leaping Easter lamb.

The frosting part of this is actually very easy. Piping a rosette is not hard (there’s a video below), and if you have trouble with it, feel free to plain frost the white cupcakes, and then rough it up a little to look like fleece. I’ve never frosted between cupcakes, but that was pretty darn easy too. I kind of thought the frosting might fall down the space between, but it didn’t.

I used my usual doctored cake mix to make the cupcakes, and my favorite decorator’s buttercream. I’ll put both recipes below, and then a step-by-step walkthrough of how to put this guy together 🙂

Doctored Cake Mix (Cupcakes)

2018-02-23 18:25:09

Yields 24

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Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

35 min

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

35 min

Ingredients

1 box cake mix
1 pkg instant pudding
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter

Instructions

Mix together all ingredients.
Spoon into lined cupcake pan, filling each liner 1/3 cup full.
Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes.
Allow to fully cool before decorating.

Homan at Home https://homanathome.com/

Decorator's Buttercream

2018-02-23 18:31:58

Serves 24

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Total Time

10 min

Total Time

10 min

Ingredients

1 cup shortening
1 cup butter
2 tsp vanilla
8 cups powdered sugar
2-4 Tbsp water

Instructions

Beat together shortening, butter, and vanilla.
Add powdered sugar 2 cups at a time until all sugar is mixed in.
Add water 1 Tbsp at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.

To test consistency of frosting

Scoop some up with a knife and try to shake it off. If it falls off without shaking, it's too thin and needs more powdered sugar. If it doesn't shake off on the first shake, it's too thick and needs more water.
This is actually a double recipe, and I used about 3/4 of it to frosting my cupcakes. This would be equal to between 2 and 3 cans of store-bought icing.

Homan at Home https://homanathome.com/

Lamb Pull-Apart Cake, Step-by-Step

Start by making a full set of cupcakes. You can use any recipe you want, but ultimately, you will need 21 cupcakes for this. You’ll also need quite a bit of frosting in 4 different colors: white, beige (or brown, grey, black, whatever your want for the face), pink, and a dark color for the mouth and eye.

Once your cupcakes are cooled, the magic can begin. Start by laying your cupcakes out. I made a nice template if you’re like me and have trouble visualizing things.

I started with the white ones (see this great tip from I am Baker on how to get your frosting really white – the tip is at the end of her post). There are 14 of them. I pulled each one out, frosted it, then slotted it back into place. The white ones are done with a rosette the size of the cupcake. You’ll need a piping bag and a Wilton 2D tip. You start in the center, and pipe outwards until you’ve covered the cupcake.

And if that wasn’t clear enough, here’s a video by Created by Diane (not me, totally different Diane!) to show you exactly how it’s done!

Your rosettes should look something like this:

The brown ones are easier. There are 7 of them, and you’ll frost each brown cupcake with a knife:

Two of them will go on the bottom for feet, and 5 are going to get frosted together to form the head.

To do this, place the cupcakes just the way you want them. Get a little bit more of your brown frosting, and smooth it over the cupcakes. Here’s a close up:

And now to decorate the face. I used a Wilton tip 3 and some pink icing to block out where the ear and nose would be, then filled in VERY carefully with a knife. That was easily the most difficult part of the whole thing.

Then, I used a Wilton tip 12 to make the eye. It’s just a giant lump of white frosting – doesn’t that sound yummy!

Last, I used the 3 tip to pipe dark brown for the mouth, eye, and eyebrow.

And that’s it! Your adorable leaping lamb is ready for the party!