Lion Cake

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saint Mark the Evangelist(†63):
Saint Mark was converted to the Faith by the Prince of the Apostles, whom he later accompanied to Rome, acting there as his secretary or interpreter. When Saint Peter wrote his First Epistle to the churches of Asia, he affectionately joined to his own salutation that of his faithful companion, whom he calls “my son Mark.” The Roman people entreated Saint Mark to put in writing for them the substance of Saint Peter’s frequent discourses on Our Lord’s life. This the Evangelist did under the eye and with the express sanction of the Apostle, and every page of his brief but graphic Gospel so bore the impress of Saint Peter’s character, that the Fathers used to name it “Peter’s Gospel.”

For the cake you need 1 Betty Crocker pound cake; mix according to the directions on the box. Make 18 mini cupcakes( each takes about 1 T of the cake mix) the remainder of the cake mix place in a 9" round cake pan, that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake the cake for 25 minutes and the cupcakes for 10 minutes. Cool completely. Place the cake in the center of a cake platter and arrange the cupcakes all around the cake. In a mixer place 2 containers of vanilla frosting, tint orange. Frost cake and cupcakes, reserve a few tablespoons of the frosting to adhere the candies. For the mane cut orange, yellow, red and black licorice into 1 1/2" pieces, press into cupcakes. For the ears I used half of an Oreo cookie and 1 large marshmallow per ear. For the eybrows i split an Oreo in half and I used a large marshmallow with a dab of black frosting and an M&M for the eyes.For the nose i used 2 long pieces of chocolate , 3 cake oreos( 1 cut into a triangle) and a piece of the red licorice for the lions mouth. For the whiskers I used black licorice cut into thin strips.

I saw this idea in Woman's World magazine. The kids were happy with the results.