Gluten-Free Easter Lamb Cake – Quick & Easy

Easter is approaching and this year I definitely needed to make soft and tasty gluten-free Easter lamb cakes for my kids. And the recipe should be quick and easy, of course.

The last time I was baking a Easter lamb cake was about 5 years ago. At that time, I was still using plenty of wheat flour which made for a very nice and soft dough – and brought me plenty of migraine attacks. So I stopped using wheat flour and all the other gluten-containing flours (like spelt flour). Which caused my kids to complain about not getting yummy Easter lamb cakes any more from their Easter bunny.

So I gave it a try. First I was thinking of using pearl millet flour, one of my favorite gluten-free flours for its nice, pleasant taste. But its tendency to make baked goods quite crumbly did not seem a very good choice for a special form cake. So I was thinking harder. In my last recipe, which was about how to make yummy gluten-free crepes, I used teff flour (a kind of millet flour) which proved to be quite stabilizing in a gluten-free dough. And this worked out really nicely for my Easter lamb cakes, too!

My kids love their very soft and tasty gluten-free Easter lamb cakes and always start with the head of the lamb as their first huge bite. Enjoy!

Egg-sugar-mix (gluten-free Easter lamb cake).

After preheating the oven to 180 °C (≈ 360 °F), prepare the “egg-sugar-mix”. You will need eggs, granulated sugar, water and a little bit of salt.

Place all ingredients in a big enough mixing bowl of an electric mixer and let mix for about 10 to 15 minutes. The egg-sugar-mix needs to be really really creamy. The longer you mix, the more air will be included in the dough and the softer the cake will be in the end.

Flour-starch-mix (gluten-free Easter lamb cake).

In the meantime, prepare the ingredients for the “flour-starch-mix”. You will need finely ground teff flour, tapioca starch, hazelnut meal (i.e. ground hazelnuts), vanilla sugar and a little bit of baking powder.

It is best to first make the hazelnut meal. This is quite easy – you only need to take whole hazelnuts and put them in the grinder for a couple of minutes. Then combine it with the other ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk.

Next, grease and flour the Easter lamb cake forms.

Required dough consistency of egg-sugar-mix (gluten-free Easter lamb cake).

The egg-sugar-mix is ready when it is very thick and creamy and is able to keep its form a little while.

Now it is time to carefully combine the egg-sugar-mix with the “flour-starch-mix”. It is best to use a rubber spatula for this task. The less you “treat” the dough when mixing, the more air will stay in the dough which makes the baked cake soft and airy.

Fill dough in prepared Easter lamb cake forms (gluten-free Easter lamb cakes).

Finally, pour the dough into the prepared Easter lamb cake forms. Do not fill the cake forms completely with dough as the dough will rise during baking.

Now place it in the oven for about 35 minutes until the cake is brown at the surface. Use a long enough needle to test if the dough is ready to be taken out of the oven. The “needle test” is quite simple: After baking, stick the needle as deep as possible into the middle of the lamb cake. When you pull the needle out again and you see liquid dough sticking to the needle, you should give it a couple of more minutes as it is not finished baking yet.

Let cool and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with whipped cream if you like.

Enjoy your very soft and tasty gluten-free Easter lamb cake!

NOTES:
g = gram
ml = milliliter
TBS = tablespoon = 15 ml
tsp. = teaspoon = 5 ml
1 cup = 1 cup [US] = 235 ml = 16 tablespoons (TBS)
1 pound (lb.) = 0.454 kilograms (kg) = 454 grams (g)
1 ounce (oz.) = approx. 28 grams (g)
1 inch (in or “) = 2.54 centimeters (cm) = 25.4 millimeters (mm)

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