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JennGM
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| Posted: Feb 27 2012 at 8:35am | IP Logged
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It's a bit early, but I thought I'd start a thread on the Lamb Cake.
I didn't find one dedicated to just this dessert.
Do you make a lamb cake? What recipe do you follow? What kind of lamb cake do you make?
I've struggled with indecision on making a lamb cake for Holy Thursday, since it's such a high feast and the beginning of the Sacrifice, or Easter Sunday (Christ our Paschal Lamb has been Sacrificed). Sometimes I make for both.
I usually make a pound cake recipe and use Evelyn Vitz's recipe for frosting, including the Cognac.
Since my son is wheat, egg, and dairy free, I haven't been able to convert this safe for him, so I make cupcakes decorated as a lambs for him, and the cake as the centerpiece.
I caught this neat article in the Wall Street Journal: Playing Kitchen Detective
Home Cooks Try to Recreate Family Recipes; What Did Grandma Put in Her Kugel? including a lamb cake, and the blogger's additional pictures about her lamb cake.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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KackyK
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Going to follow this! We have never made one. However, we have dear friends who make more than one in fact. Their tradition is to make three, one to keep and then one for each of their children to decorate and then each child gets to choose who to give their cake to on Holy Saturday. Last year we were on the receiving end of one of the cakes and it was so wonderful and sweet.
Not that I'm ready to make a cake for each child to give away, but I would like to make at least one! I've never looked up the directions. It is good to think about this now 
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KackyK
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JennGM
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Mold discussions:
The gold standard is the Griswold Cast Iron Mold which are no longer made, and can be costly.
The recipes and instructions for those molds can be found in many places, including here.
Aluminum molds:
Wilton Stand-up Lamb Cake Pan
Nordic Ware Spring Lamb 3-D Cake Mold. This is the version (although older) that my mother had. Very lightweight mold.
Kitchen Supply Large Lamb Cake Mold. This is heavy like cast-iron, but cast aluminum. Years ago Martha Stewart sold some similar to these, so I have one of these, and then also the lightweight Nordicware.
I know so many people are avoiding cooking with aluminum, but I usually do, too, but I am not blessed with an inexpensive lamb cake mold and can't afford to spent $100+ for used-only-once-a-year-mold. I can dream, though.
Steel pan: Kaiser Bakeware Lambform (be advised that it is a steel pan, smaller in size, but also has a non-stick mold, and I was unable to get the ingredients on the non-stick).
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Jennifer G. Miller
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JennGM
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Discussion of Recipes:
One year I followed Elizabeth's recipe for Lamb Cake with Hazelnut Frosting.
The frosting was good, but the cake and frosting were a bit too sweet, and I think my lamb mold is smaller than the Wilton version.
Although many other countries have this tradition, I have found this is definitely a Polish Easter tradition, called a agnuszek or baranek wielkanocny in Polish. Although some people would include it in their Easter food basket (Swieconka) for blessing, I wouldn't risk breaking my cake since I have to travel to bring my basket.
More information (and lots of links and recipes to click) here, including Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe.
I think the cream cheese frosting would be excellent on this.
Most of my family is not fond of coconut, so I only use green-tinted coconut for grass in the display, not on the actual cake.
Here's my cake from 2007. Other years it looks similar. I've also tried having a chocolate cake and then white icing, since we love chocolate. But the trick is to find a dense cake recipe, and that's why pound is much better.
Interestingly, besides Holy Thursday and Easter as feasts for the lamb cake, I've also found this a traditional cake for the St. Joseph's Altar / Table.
This is the picture from Martha Stewart Living of their cakes.
The Martha Stewart mold had some recipes, including using Swiss Buttercream and Orange Pound Cake. I can post if anyone is interested.
I had these tips filed away from someone:
>>Important tip for you, place a cookie sheet under the cake pan to catch any that spills out of the pan. You will probably have some spillage and it will be caught in the pan instead of your oven.
Tips from Martha Stewart Living show:
>>Any firm cake is fine, pound cake-types are best. Grease and flour the mold heavily. To help prevent sticking, chill for a bit before filling with batter. When it comes time to fill the mold, do it face down, so that gravity will force the batter into the detailing.
For frosting, she recommended putting an undercoat layer on the cake (called crumbing the cake), and then taking a pastry bag and doing "squiggles" all over to represent the wool. The undercoat serves to mask the cake underneath and provides an even color. She took a ribbon and tied it around the cake's "neck".
When frosting the cake, lay down a two pieces of waxed paper that will overlap under the cake on the serving plate. Then after you've frosted the cake, you can remove the waxed paper strips by sliding them out and you've got a cake plate without messy frosting on it!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Jenn Sal
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| Posted: Feb 27 2012 at 6:02pm | IP Logged
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We made a lamb cake two years ago. It was adorable, but we are just not big cake fans. So, I've been wondering if I could use the mold to make something else? We LOVE cheese cake, but I know that won't work! 
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Jennifer, Texas
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JennGM
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Jenn Sal wrote:
| We made a lamb cake two years ago. It was adorable, but we are just not big cake fans. So, I've been wondering if I could use the mold to make something else? We LOVE cheese cake, but I know that won't work! |
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Mmmm, cheese cake. I was thinking earlier today what about these quick bread recipes, like banana bread. You just don't do cakes at all?
Another idea -- you would have to eat it fast, but ice cream?
My mother one year couldn't afford a lamb so used the lamb cake mold to make meatloaf in the shape of a lamb for Holy Thursday.
I found another mold, which is quite tiny, and made from steel: lamb mold, 8 x 5 inches cake.
But perhaps you need to forget the cake lamb and make a butter lamb? We have the plastic mold, but there are also butter ones.
And if you're game, try a metal chocolate lamb mold. These are harder to find, usually German made.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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pmeilaen
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That is the mold I used last year to make our gluten-free lamb (you can see a picture of it on my blog here. Just scroll down a bit, first you see it without the sugar and then with it).
We also use one made by Kaiser. Take a look here. It was one of my wedding gifts in Germany.
I used that mold two years ago and you can see that lamb here. I used less sugar.
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Eva
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pmeilaen
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JennGM wrote:
Do you make a lamb cake? What recipe do you follow? What kind of lamb cake do you make?
I've struggled with indecision on making a lamb cake for Holy Thursday, since it's such a high feast and the beginning of the Sacrifice, or Easter Sunday (Christ our Paschal Lamb has been Sacrificed). Sometimes I make for both.
I usually make a pound cake recipe and use Evelyn Vitz's recipe for frosting, including the Cognac.
Since my son is wheat, egg, and dairy free, I haven't been able to convert this safe for him, so I make cupcakes decorated as a lambs for him, and the cake as the centerpiece.
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Yes, I always make one for Easter Sunday and Monday. It's a tradition I grew up with. I have a recipe that uses gluten-free flour, almond flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and rum. If you are interested I would have to translate it into English (from the original German).
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Eva
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St. Ann
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Eva, do you use this recipe?
Zutaten:
100g Mehl (hier Dr. Schär Mix "Kuchen&Kekse") flour
60g Mandeln almond flour
1/2 Teelöffel Backpulver 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 Eier, getrennt 2 eggs, separated
60g Puderzucker powdered sugar
60g Zucker sugar
1 Päckchen Vanillezucker 1 tsp vanilla extract
120g Butter butter :-)
Prise Salz pinch of salt
This is a very moist gf cake recipe, which I use for other forms, not just for the Lamb form. I do double it.
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Stephanie
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JennGM
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Oh, that sounds delicious! I wish we could do eggs and butter! But I'd love your recipe, too, Eva, if it's different from Stephanie's!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Jenn Sal
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JennGM wrote:
Jenn Sal wrote:
| We made a lamb cake two years ago. It was adorable, but we are just not big cake fans. So, I've been wondering if I could use the mold to make something else? We LOVE cheese cake, but I know that won't work! |
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Mmmm, cheese cake. I was thinking earlier today what about these quick bread recipes, like banana bread. You just don't do cakes at all?
Another idea -- you would have to eat it fast, but ice cream?
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ICE CREAM CAKE.....If I can figure that out, I will let you know! My family would love that The quick bread idea sounds great! We could use that as our breakfast. I'm going to look into that. Thank you!
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pmeilaen
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St. Ann wrote:
Eva, do you use this recipe?
Zutaten:
100g Mehl (hier Dr. Schär Mix "Kuchen&Kekse") flour
60g Mandeln almond flour
1/2 Teelöffel Backpulver 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 Eier, getrennt 2 eggs, separated
60g Puderzucker powdered sugar
60g Zucker sugar
1 Päckchen Vanillezucker 1 tsp vanilla extract
120g Butter butter :-)
Prise Salz pinch of salt
This is a very moist gf cake recipe, which I use for other forms, not just for the Lamb form. I do double it. |
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Here is my German recipe for the Kaiser lamb mold:
60 g weiche Butter 60 g butter, softened
60 g Zucker 60 g sugar
1 Vanillezucker 1 vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Prise Salz 1 pinch of salt
2 Eier 2 eggs
1 EL Rum 1 tbs rum
60 g gemahlene Nüsse oder Mandeln 60 g ground nuts (hazelnuts or almonds work best)
60 g Mehl 60 g flour
60 g Stärke 60 g starch (I use tapioca)
1 gestrichener TL Backpulver (1 tsp baking powder)
Der Reihe nach zu einem Rührteig verrühren. Form buttern und mit Mehl ausstreuen. Bei 180 Grad 40 Minuten auf unterster Schiene backen. 5 Minuten auskühlen lassen und dann stürzen. Mit Puderzucker bestreuen.
Mix all the ingredients with a mixer for about 3 minutes. Butter a lamb mold and dust it with flour. Bake at 350 degrees on the lowest rack for about 40 minutes. Let it cool for 5 minutes. Remove the mold, let it cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap. Dust it with powdered sugar before serving.
I double the recipe for the Wilton mold. To make it gluten free I use my gluten free flour mix (5 c brown or white rice flour, 1 1/2 c sweet rice flour, 1 c tapioca starch, 1 tbs xanthan gum) for the flour part. For the starch I use tapioca starch. I don't use Schär because it contains cornstarch and we have some corn allergies.
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pmeilaen
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JennGM wrote:
| Oh, that sounds delicious! I wish we could do eggs and butter! But I'd love your recipe, too, Eva, if it's different from Stephanie's! |
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I just posted my recipe under Stephanie's. It's somewhat different. Could you use egg replacer instead of the eggs or ground flax seed with water?
By the way, we eat this for breakfast with butter and jam. We don't use icing, just powdered sugar on the outside.
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JennGM
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 9:28am | IP Logged
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Bumping this!
Terrific post on 10 tips for Easter Lamb Cake and tune in during April to see the recipes she tried.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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MicheleQ
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Jenn that's is HUGELY helpful --thank you! I am attempting my first lamb cake this year. I went with the Nordic Ware 3-D Cake Mold. I hope it works!
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Michele Quigley
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Lamb Cake
