easter lamb and bunny cakes

This post is so timely!

I was talking with my family the other day and we wandered on to the conversation about spending Easter at grandma's house when we were kids.

Each Easter, my aunt and then eventually my cousin (same age as I) would make a lamb cake using that same type of cake pan, but she would put shredded coconut all over the cake. She also tinted coconut green and the lamb would be sitting in a bed of green frosting and green coconut along with jelly beans sprinkled around. It was really pretty.

I cannot stand the smell or taste of coconut and something about the texture of coconut makes me gag. I am not picky about food at all, but something about coconut----yuck. Even the smell of the coconut makes me nauseous.

So each Easter for twelve years (age 3 to 15), I would not get any of the dessert, and this was the only dessert and the showpiece item on the table. Even with scraping off the frosting, I could still taste the coconut and I would gag. I couldn't even be near the "adult table", because the lamb cake was in the middle of the table and the coconut smell made me feel queasy.

Each year, my aunt (cousin's mother) would say, "Why isn't (my name) having any cake?" more like she was offended that I wasn't eating the cake. Each year, my mom would dutifully say, "She doesn't like the taste of coconut, so she can't eat it because it makes her gag." My aunt or cousin would say "Oh."

Each year, same thing. Like they never heard this before!!!!  But then I would sneak to my cousin's Easter basket (grandma made us a little Easter basket each year) and I swapped out my jelly beans for her chocolate kisses.

So last year, the family got together at Easter because we had a funeral the day before Easter. We haven't done Easter together since 1975.

Sooooo, what does my cousin bring?! That same damned Easter lamb covered in coconut!! My mom and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh. And, even though I am old enough (at age 52) to finally sit at the adult table, I couldn't because of that damned lamb cake.

And yep, I started to feel nauseous from the coconut smell so I sat at the kids table with the 5 year olds. My aunt and cousin and others kept talking about the "lamb cake" tradition and how it felt more like Easter because of that lamb cake.

All the while, my mom and I are giving each other the "side eye".

I made a "bunny" one year -- but it was just a box mix made into a round layer and another layer (I'd have to look it up) cut into the required shape. It was very easy and pretty cute -- fun when you have younger kids.