The Lamb

I want to start by wishing everyone a blessed Easter! Amen. Amen. He has risen. Amen.

When I was a child I would see what were called "Lamb cakes" in magazines and I always wanted to make one. A few years back I stumbled across a lamb cake mold at Good Will and I decided that the time so four years later I dug the pan out of my cupboard Easter eve and set to work.

Before I go into my tale, let me enlighten you with some background surrounding this cake. The lamb cake is an eastern european tradition. The lamb is the official symbol of Easter for Poland due to Christ being called the Lamb of God. The lamb cake is a dessert which is called agnuszek or baranek wielkanocny in Polish.

Now on to my tale...I wanted my lamb cake to be as traditional as possible so I headed to You Tube to watch videos. I realized everyone makes it differently: one lady used store bought pound cake mixes, another used just a yellow cake recipe and the other said to just use a pound cake recipe.



I went to my dear friend Betty Crocker and asked her what to use and she had the recipe I needed - a pound cake. I have never made a pound cake before and couldn't believe how much butter and eggs you use in the recipe hence the name "pound cake" right?. I oiled and floured my lamb halves and started pouring. I realized after awhile that not all the batter was going to fit in one half the lamb and you're not suppose to put it in the other side so we got an extra small pound cake.

I figured since I was only using 2/3 of the batter that I should leave my cake in about 50 to 60 minutes instead of the 60 to 80 minutes. I took it out after about 70 minutes and inserted a toothpick in the steam release hole and the toothpick came out clean so I took off the top of the lamp. The body, which is denser, didn't look done so I inserted the toothpick in that part and it wasn't done so back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

I opened the oven after the timer went off and my cake was missing! That's when I realized I had placed the cake back into the wrong oven. I placed the cake back into the right oven and continued to bake it another 20 minutes. I figured this would be the failure part but to my pleasant surprise the cake came out and had finished baking through and through.

I was all proud of myself and so excited that I didn't follow You Tube directions of waiting five minutes before dumping the cake on a cooling rack. Since the cake was still hot, I basically decapitated my lamb.

The cake tastes yummy even if my lamb is in pieces so at least the recipe worked. I'll try it again - next year.

Have a wonderful Easter day.

Jearise :)