I love the idea of repeating a menu for big holidays year over year—a beef Wellington always on Christmas, a certain heart-shaped sugar cookies always for Valentine’s Day, a flag ice box cake and fun pasta salad always for the Fourth of July, etc. etc. This is a big part of building a “we always” family culture, as food with its multi-sensory appeal and the memories made gathering around the table have a way of piercing the fabric of time, providing annual, mini-portals through which we may travel back and grasp a happy and holy moment.

(Tip: I purchased this fun binder and corresponding dividers to store and organize our family recipes)

For Easter, the biggest and most important feast and celebration of them all for the Christian home, we’ve relied on our trusty scalloped potatoes, ham, green beans, deviled eggs and fluffy rolls for dinner prefaced by Resurrection Rolls before church and a cinnamon roll, breakfast casserole and candied bacon for brunch. But what for the dessert? Last year in a spurt of newly postpartum creativity and energy, I decided that, for our family, it would be a lamb cake.

I could think of nothing more whimsical, nostalgic and celebratory—yet deeply symbolic and spiritually significant—to honor the Paschal Lamb on the day of His glorious Resurrection.

The tradition of an Easter lamb cake has German and Polish roots, and spread to the United States through European immigrants where it enjoyed popularity in mid-century American homes with the rise of domestic culture.

And while lamb cake culture has waned significantly, it has experienced somewhat of a renaissance as of late thanks in part to viral lamb cake Pinterest fails, Martha’s seal of approval, and, perhaps (I hope) a collective return to tradition and intention in the food we make and the ways we celebrate the feasts, observe fasts, and walk through the seasons of the year.

Here’s how we make ours:

The most critical element of any lamb cake construction is, well, the Lamb Cake Pan. We have this aluminum one from Nordic Ware (first produced by the company in the 1940’s!) and it has worked perfectly so far.

We largely follow Nordic Ware’s lamb cake recipe, but I wanted to call out a few key things to ensure your lamb cake baking and decorating success:

1. When they indicate buttering the entirety of the pan to be very important, they mean it! Every nook and cranny must. be. greased, or else your poor dense and chocolately lamb might be missing its muzzle, or an ear! Also, we only fill half of the pan—not both sides! And the mold should be placed face down and that side filled.

2. For the cocoa powder used for dusting, Guittard’s Cocoa Rouge cocoa powder has never let me down in this instance, or in stovetop hot cocoa on snow days.

3. Getting the base cake part of the lamb just right can be a bit tricky, so it’s best to wait to involve young children until the decorating part. Once the cake has cooled, been masterfully extracted from the mold, and secured onto a platter using a thick icing or frosting, the sky’s the limit. In the past, we have piped the “wool” onto our lamb using a thick buttercream (hint: it is important to make enough in one batch for the entirety of the lamb, or you’ll end up with some odd color variance from batch to batch based on various conditions, and also, it must be cold—take care to refrigerate as needed as frosting starts to melt and run. It also helps to refrigerate the cake itself before decorating), use black royal icing for the darling squinty eyes, a pink jelly bean for the nose and shredded coconut colored with natural green food dye for the grass. Many traditional lamb cakes also boast a red ribbon or bow around the neck to symbolize Christ’s sacrifice and a flag with a cross to commemorate His victory over death.

4. Let the toddler in your life have the very important job of dyeing said coconut grass by dumping the shreds in a Ziploc along with the dye and shaking to their heart’s content.

5. Keep refrigerated until about 2-3 hours before your big Easter meal (this cake doubles as a great centerpiece!) and then bask in the glory of the memories made in the great feast and celebrations of the risen King!

Also, try to remember that the sort of “off-ness” of the lamb cake is part of the whole charm of it all. Those Pinterest fails went viral for a reason and yours, like mine, will not be perfect either (and what do you know, Jesus still died and rose for you!)

Finally, no Easter food post would be complete without my mentioning the most epic of Easter traditions television specials—one that feels old school and nostalgic in the very best (British) way…

Mary Berry’s Easter Feasts (two parts!) is the most charming and fun and includes a visit to the Anglican cathedral that was supposedly home to the OG hot cross bun before showing us how to make her “heavily fruited, luxury bun.”

I have always been a Berry fan, but hadn’t realized she was rooted in a strong Christian faith until this particular special, and it was fascinating to learn about how Christians of various denominations across Britain celebrate the highest holy day of the Christian year. There is also a beautiful moment in which the gospel is preached so explicitly you almost can’t believe this was aired on British TV. 10/10 recommend.

Happy Baking & Lamb Cake Decorating!

Lent is typically understood by the broader culture as a season of subtraction as we fast from common vices—sweets or alcohol or scrolling our screens. It is prefaced by Shrove Tuesday, a time of indulgence (often in pancakes!) before dunking the last of the Valentine’s Day sweets in the trash. Traditionally, Christians would fast from rich foods—sugar, dairy, meat—and so these were used up before the 40-day penitential period began.

And then there is the culturally lesser known Lenten pillar of almsgiving, the spiritual discipline of giving to the poor or performing acts of charity.

But what to fill the void in all of this going without and giving away? A renewed and refocused prayer life, to be sure—another pillar of the season. Room for God to do His work of conviction and restoration in our hearts as we return to Him. Silence that, perhaps, gives way to a quiet reckoning of the soul. And, according to Maria von Trapp, books. Good, mind-sharpening, soul-expanding, heart-swelling books.

In Around the Year with the von Trapp Family, the von Trapp family matriarch herself writes of her family Lent:

The time saved through abstention from movies—and it is astonishing to find how much it is! —will be devoted to a carefully chosen reading program.

She suggests three types of reading material, in addition to the reading of scripture, to accompany the believer through the Lenten season:

Something for the mind: “This should mean doing serious research”

Something for the soul: “This should be spiritual reading of a high order”

Something for the heart: “…the biographies of people who started out as we did but had their minds set on following the word of Our Lord”

Might I offer some tried-and-true favorites in each category to accompany your Lenten journey this year, geared specifically to the mother, but beneficial to any of us who might be seeking to replace habits of distraction with focused study, grounded devotions, and inspirational stories of the saints who have gone before…

For the mind

This year, I’ll hyper-focus my research on the very topic of this Substack—liturgical living, family traditions, etc. for the purposes of a book I hope to write and curate that expands upon and elevates what I’ve been writing here (publishing friends tell me I must build an “audience” first, so accept my shameless request for your likes and shares, as they will help us get to said book that I hope will be a blessing to the family who is crafting their culture, forming meaningful traditions and living a liturgical and legacy-minded life). I’ve curated books lists here and here of my favorites.

The below titles are also on my list for this year on theology, parenting, angels (can we talk more about angels, please?!), and Christian virtue.

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton

The Duties of Parents by JC Ryle (if only I had bypassed all those other parenting books and just read this instead! Short and to the point and I re-read every year)

Angels: God’s Secret Agents by Billy Graham

The Art of Living: The Cardinal Virtues and the Freedom to Love by Edward Sri

After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters by N.T. Wright

For the soul

The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila

Virtue and Vice: A Dictionary of the Good Life (excerpts from the works of C.S. Lewis)

A Diary of Private Prayer by John Bailie (my absolute favorite prayer companion aside from the Book of Common Prayer

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

For the heart

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Bright Legacy: Portraits of Ten Outstanding Christian Women

The Story of a Family: The Home of St. Therese of Lisieux by Stephane-Joseph Piat

Devoted: Great Men and Their Godly Moms by Tim Challies

The Tapestry: The Life and Times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer by Edith Schaeffer

The Lifegiving Home by and (rereading this year!)

May your Lenten season be blessed with quiet enough to make room for the wisdom of the saints and, more importantly, still small voice of God.