Tradition~~Easter Lamb Cake

Just about anyone from the Chicago area, especially the Polish people, know what I am talking about when I mention "lamb cake". Having a lamb cake at their Easter dinner table is a tradition of Polish people and many Eastern European countries. For as far back as I can remember we always had a lamb cake (or 2--lol) at Easter. Not only am I of Polish descent, but my grandpa was a baker. And all of us knew that on Holy Saturday, my grandpa would show up with our Easter lambs and "babka", another traditional cake, but not a tradition that I have carried on. We will be having Easter dinner with our son-in-law's family. My contribution each year is the Easter lamb. In years past, I have usually bought the lamb cake on Friday, but this year decided to wait until Saturday to get a fresher cake. Well, imagine my surprise when I went to my local Jewel and there wasn't a lamb cake to be found. By the third Jewel, I could feel the disappointment building. There wouldn't be a lamb cake. When we lived in Arizona, there wasn't a lamb cake anywhere! And as much as I missed my family on those Easters we spent in AZ, not having an Easter lamb only added to my sadness on Easter Sunday. One year Jen went to the Wilton Cake tent sale here in the Chicago area and found a lamb cake mold for me. That summer, Jen was in town visiting and together with two of my Chicago friends who also lived in Anthem, AZ at the time, set out to make lamb cakes. Well let me tell you--what a fiasco! But at the end of the day, we did have two lamb cakes (we were trying two recipes to see which was most like the Chicago bakery lamb cakes) all decorated in red, white and blue for our 4th of July party! They were very cute, but surely did not taste like those we remembered. That afternoon left all of us with even more wonderful lamb cake memories. So back to my Easter lamb cake hunt. My last stop was at a Dominick's store and I actually stopped there to get a Starbucks coffee. As I walked into the store, what was on the very first table but lamb cakes! You would have thought I found gold. The Easter lamb cake tradition goes on and I am sharing a photo of this year's lamb cake! Happy Easter and take the time to recall an Easter tradition or to start a new one. Happy Easter and Blessings to you and your families.