Does Anyone Else Have A Lamb Cake As Part of Your Easter Family Tradition?
I make these now for Easter, but my Grandma made them for birthdays.
Although many Easter traditions include roasted lamb as a meat dish, a lamb cake has nothing to do with protein.
A lamb cake is a sweet, rich pound cake baked in a mold that resembles a small animal at leisure. It reclines with its head turned to face you — a subtle dare to cut off a slice and eat it.
The best I can tell, this tradition originates in Germany. Or Austria. Or Poland. Well, somewhere in Europe. I will go with a German origin, given my German heritage and surname.
In my family, lamb cakes were not for Easter. Neither were they part of religious feast tradition.
This unique cake was for our birthdays.
My paternal grandmother was the one who bestowed this favor on each of her grandchildren. She owned the most exciting cake mold my young eyes could imagine.
As my birthday neared, when she was busy watching Star Trek, I would sneak into the kitchen and look at her dishes. The lamb mold sat in a revered place on a high shelf. Dark cast iron and unbelievably heavy, even the mold of the cake had a look in its eye.
