Czech Easter Lamb Cake (Beranek)

Czech Easter time is associated with many delicious events in the kitchen. All kinds of goodies are made, among which the Easter lamb cake stands out. This easy, detailed recipe shows you how to bake lamb cake so that you succeed on your first try!

Lamb cake is baked on Holy Saturday (Bílá sobota, White Saturday in the Czech). In the past, people brought the cake to church on Easter Sunday to be blessed by a priest.

Similarly, the priest blessed other Czech ritual dishes, such as mazanec bread.

➜ What is Czech Easter lamb cake?

The Czech Easter lamb cake is a sweet sponge cake made in a mold shaped like a lamb.

After baking, let the cake cool, then grab a sieve and powdered sugar. The Czech way of cake decorating is straightforward; Czechs rarely glaze sweets baked in pans with melted chocolate or use buttery frosting.

Simply dust the surface with powdered sugar and let its beautiful shape shine through.

For a nice presentation, tie a bow around the lamb's neck in the colors of spring—green, red, or yellow. If you want perfection on the lamb's face, put two raisins in place of its eyes. Transfer the cake to a platter and arrange it on the Easter table.

NICE TO KNOW: For Czechs, baking a lamb cake is a popular Easter tradition; they call it "velikonoční beránek".

➜ Why is lamb cake baked at Easter?

For Christians who commemorate Easter as the time of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, a lamb symbolizes purity and innocence. During the Middle Ages, a living lamb used to be sacrificed and eaten as a ritual meal in the Czech Republic.

However, most Czech people were poor, especially in the countryside, and therefore a sacrificial lamb turned into the sweet cake we know and love today.

Beautiful vintage lamb molds made of cast iron or stoneware, inherited from parents, can still be found in many Czech households!

Here you can read more about Czech Easter traditions

➜ Ingredients

Easter lamb cake is one of the vintage recipes that counts as a holiday meal. To make it, you need the following:

• Whole eggs; at room temperature (not egg yolks and whites separated)
• Sugar; granulated
• Buttermilk; the sour milk product gives the lamb the necessary smoothness. Take the buttermilk out of the fridge about an hour in advance and let it come to room temperature.
• All-purpose flour
• Lemon zest; freshly grated from a thoroughly washed lemon. Ideally, use organic lemon.
• Vanilla paste; or vanilla essence
• Baking oil; such as sunflower or Canola. Do not use olive oil, it is too aromatic for this delicate pastry.
• Baking soda; not baking powder

You’ll also need a bit of butter and sifted plain breadcrumbs to grease and dust the lamb cake pan.

✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.

➜ Instructions with Photos

STEP 1: Take the eggs out of the fridge at least an hour in advance. Crack them into a large bowl and use an electric mixer to beat them with granulated sugar. Start at a lower speed, gradually add the sugar (not all at once), and increase the speed. Be patient; it takes at least 5 minutes to whip enough, more like longer. The result should be a light, airy foam.

STEP 2: Reduce the speed to a minimum, and add the vanilla and lemon zest. Gradually whisk in the buttermilk and oil.

STEP 3: Combine the flour and baking soda. Add the mixture gradually to the batter, slowly whisking it in.

STEP 4: Grease the lamb mold thoroughly with oil and dust with flour. Butter can be used instead of oil to help the flour adhere well to the mold's inner surface. Consider that buttering the mold will take a little more effort.

⇢ Learn how to grease and flour a pan for cakes

STEP 5: Pour the batter into the prepared pan; it should reach about 1¼ inches (3 cm) below the pan edge as it will puff up during baking.

STEP 6: Place in an oven preheated to 350°F / 177°C (upper and lower heating) for 1-1¼ hours.

At the end of baking, do a test for doneness. Stick a wooden skewer into the lamb. If it comes out dry, the lamb is baked. If there is any residue of raw dough on the skewer, leave the lamb to bake for a further five minutes and then repeat the test again.

⇢ More about that: How to tell when my cake is done

➜ How to safely unmold the cake

Let the baked lamb stand for about 10 minutes. Then carefully flip it over and test whether the lamb has separated from the mold.

If it sticks, place a tea towel, soaked and wrung out in cold water, over the mold. Leave it to sit for a while; then you should be able to get the lamb out of the mold without any further problems.

TIP: The key to smoothly removing the lamb is proper preparation of the mold before baking

➜ Lamb cake mold size

I bake the lamb cake in a one-piece ceramic mold from the Czech company Tescoma. The mold should be available worldwide on Amazon if you would like to get one.

I have measured the mold's dimensions for you to give you an idea of what size it is. This is important when estimating the amount of batter—so that it is not too little and, on the flip side, so that it doesn't spill out of the mold when baking.

Size of the lamb cake pan:

• Volume: 8 cups / 1.9 L
• Length: 12" / 30 cm
• Height at head: 7" / 17.5 cm
• Height at the bottom: 5" / 12.5 cm

➜ Preparing the lamb mold

Grease the mold thoroughly, including every little wrinkle. Use a little melted butter and a pastry brush to simplify the work. After that, dust the mold with sieved breadcrumbs.

This way, the cake will not stick to the pan sides, and it will be easy to take the lamb out after it’s baked. The shape of a lamb, especially the head of the cake, will be regular, with all details visible.

Here you’ll find more Czech Easter recipes

➜ Serving

Let the lamb cool, then dust it with icing sugar. Tie a bow around the neck in cheerful spring colors (green, yellow, red) and arrange it on a platter.

Still craving something delicious and sweet? Try Medovník, a famous Czech honey cake!

➜ Tips for success

• If necessary, cut the bottom of the baked cake with a sharp knife so that the lamb stands upright.
• If your lamb mold is made of ceramic, take the lamb out of the oven in time. Otherwise, its edges could be overcooked. Ceramic and cast-iron molds take longer to heat up but still glow when they come out of the oven.
• Choose a lamb cake pan that has a wider neck. Molds with narrower necks risk breaking the head off - either when removing the lamb from the mold or when handling the cake after baking.

More Czech Easter recipes:

• Jidáše – Czech Easter sweet yeasted pastry
• Easter stuffing – Czech "hlavička" stuffing loaded with herbs and smoked meat
• Boží milosti – a sweet treat made with white wine
• Easter biscuits – jam-filled
• Easter birds – made with sweet yeast dough