Easter Lamb Pound Cake

Spring is finally here ushering in warmer temperatures during this Holy Easter week. This time of year always reminds me of the great Easter feasts we would have at my Grandmother or Teta’s home after church. The meal usually involved a spiral ham with lots of side dishes and tons of desserts. The one dessert we all enjoyed in addition to the poppy seed cake was the annual Easter Lamb Pound Cake my dear Teta made. She and my Grandmother had the old cast iron lamb molds and would prepare several of these pound cakes every Easter. Though my dear grandmother and great aunt have passed on, my mother has fortunately kept the lamb pound cake tradition alive as she gifts all of her children a lamb every Easter Sunday. While our family enjoys these gifts from mom every year, I decided to go out and purchase one of our own lamb molds so we can prepare these for future generations of my own family. My newest acquisition is not the heavy cast iron model, but aluminum. It does a great job and seems to hold up quite well. Best of all, I found this treasure on e-bay for under $25.


Some rules to go buy when baking in these lamb molds. First, make sure you stick to using a dense cake batter such as pound cake. A regular cake or sponge cake is too airy and will fall apart easily when using the mold. A second rule is that the sky is the limit to decorating your lamb. Many people like to coat the lamb with white icing and then apply the “wool” of the lamb or in this case, coconut. This creates a very artistic lamb, though I usually pass on the frosting and coconut and simply shake the lamb with a generous coating of powdered sugar and add a few raisins for the “eyes”. I do like to rest the cake on Easter grass and sprinkle the perimeter of the lamb with jelly beans and chocolates. If you are looking for a lamb mold I highly encourage you to check out cake ware companies such as Wilton or even visit e-bay (that’s is where I found my mold). You will see a large range of prices from about $20 upwards to over a $100, depending on metal type and age. There are a few cast iron models that can be pricey, though the aluminum mold does as good a job.

For those that have the molds and do not have a recipe, I will share my tried and true method with you and wish you all a Happy Easter.

Easter Lamb Pound Cake Recipe (makes two lambs)

1 lb butter
1 lb confectioners’ sugar
6 eggs
3 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease and flour lamb mold.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
4. Add eggs (two at a time), flour, baking powder, and extract.
5. When well blended, pour cake batter into “face” half of lamb mold.
6. Place other half on top and place entire mold on cookie sheet and place into oven.
7. Bake for one hour.
8. Let mold cool on cake rack for five minutes and carefully remove from mold.

Tips:

1. Prior to baking make sure every crook and crevice is adequately greased to prevent cake batter sticking and causing problems when loosening from mold.

2. When batter is poured into mold, consider submersing a toothpick in the “ears” portion of the batter to strengthen their connection to the head while baking.