9010: lamb cake.

My mom used to make the lamb cake at Easter when we were kids. I remember her struggling to keep the head from falling off, or the ears would break off or the lamb wouldn't stay upright on the platter. Jelly bean eyes, nose & mouth & a bed of tinted green coconut. Good times.

Every Easter I'd see pictures of family lamb cakes & want to recreate the lamb cake in honor of my mom. This year I finally bought a vintage pan on ebay. It's from the Jenny Lee Bakery in Pittsburgh, a family bakery that opened in 1938 and closed in 2008. I'm thrilled to have a piece of their history.

vintage lamb pan from Jenny Lee Bakery, Pittsburg

I also found this fab photo of a lady named Frances Morawietz, posing with her lamb cake.

source: langfordfamily.com

I used Cook's Illustrated pound cake recipe (1/2 recipe would have been fine). Grease/flour the mold halves well and fill the face side of the mold with batter.

fill face side of mold with pound cake batter

Place 3 toothpicks in the head for stability at the nose & ears

Cover with the back side of the mold & tie the mold halves together with string

I hadn't done a test cake in the pan, so I was flying by the seat of my pants with the baking temp/times. The CI recipe calls for you to bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then drop the temp to 325 and bake for another 45 minutes. I baked at 350 for 15, then dropped the temp to 325 & baked it for another 27 minutes. Toothpick through the vent holes showed moist crumbs which is what you want, but I should've taken the cake out at least 5 minutes earlier, because it will continue to cook in the pan after you've taken it out of the oven.

Loosen around the edges with a thin blade spatula. This is what it looks like after you lift the back side of the mold off

Flipped over. The neck cracked when I was taking it out of the mold, so I propped the head up with some parchment.

He's iced with cream cheese icing and coated with coconut chips. The faces on these lamb cakes always look weird, so I sewed up a bowtie for him & left it at that.