Butter in the Easter basket is symbolic of the goodness of Christ, that we should emulate toward others. In traditional Polish Easter Baskets the butter lamb is called baranek wielkanocny. Butter is usually shaped into a lamb, for sake of symbolism the lamb usually bares white flag with a red cross. Also acceptable is the arrangement of butter in the form of the cross. If you take a look at the photo of last year's basket I posted you will see a butter cross sitting on top of the Easter Bread, some of the other photos I have posted show the butter cut into blocks and arranged into a cross shape.
If you are making a basket that will not be blessed you may decide to shape it into a bunny or some other festive form, but I will encourage you as part of making your Easter Basket special, that you give shaping or molding your butter a try.
If you are serving a traditional Easter dinner, a Lamb shaped cake tends to be traditionally served as dessert... that being said I haven't come across a cake version in my home town in an Easter basket. A lamb cake is just "regular" (if you can call a cake shaped lamb regular) Easter fair not typically included in the basket... after all when at any other point in the year are you going to use a huge traditional lamb shaped mold?
Thank goodness in this day and age (thank you e-bay) I have been able to find a smaller version of a lamb mold that I won't be taking up as much space as a full sized lamb cake mold for my butter, and the lamb will sized to fit nicely into my Easter Basket. Many people who have artistic talent actually use a combination of sculpting, carving, and piping butter to create whimsical butter lambs for their Easter Baskets and dinner table. The most amazing Easter lambs I have come across were the ones we had in my child hood. My Aunt who was also our neighbor would get a Nun in the city to carve the most lovely lamb out of butter, it was so detailed and delicate and you had to be so careful placing it in your Easter basket so as not to dent or break it. Most of the time the poor lovely thing was so trussed up in plastic wrap you couldn't even see it in the basket. In Manitoba Canada snow and ice sculptures can be found around the city during the winter, but butter carving is actually pretty popular as part of food displays in warmer climates and they have some pretty stunning competitions around butter sculpting.
For my lamb I tried to find a mold that looked solid and sturdy and didn't have many detailed bits sticking out. The trick is to freeze your butter so that you can fish it out of the mold. I'm most concerned about the ears but we will see how they hold up, if you feel the need to embellish your lamb you can use pepper corns, or cloves for the eyes.
Want to make and Easter Lamb the traditional way with out a mold? Here are the instructions from Cap'n Ron (Funny my dad's name is also Ron) who cares about and adores the tradition of crafting this special Easter treat by hand. http://www.capnrons.com/Easter_Butter_Lamb.html
I have head this tradition described as everything from Delightful to Wacky but for those of us that grew up with it, it is a cherished part of the Easter Basket. For those of us who are Catholic this is the most visual representation of our faith placed in the basket.
Image Credit- Catholic Cuisine
-Creating My Easter Butter Lamb
-Out of the freezer and assemble
Thank goodness in this day and age (thank you e-bay) I have been able to find a smaller version of a lamb mold that I won't be taking up as much space as a full sized lamb cake mold for my butter, and the lamb will sized to fit nicely into my Easter Basket. Many people who have artistic talent actually use a combination of sculpting, carving, and piping butter to create whimsical butter lambs for their Easter Baskets and dinner table. The most amazing Easter lambs I have come across were the ones we had in my child hood. My Aunt who was also our neighbor would get a Nun in the city to carve the most lovely lamb out of butter, it was so detailed and delicate and you had to be so careful placing it in your Easter basket so as not to dent or break it. Most of the time the poor lovely thing was so trussed up in plastic wrap you couldn't even see it in the basket. In Manitoba Canada snow and ice sculptures can be found around the city during the winter, but butter carving is actually pretty popular as part of food displays in warmer climates and they have some pretty stunning competitions around butter sculpting.
-Image credit - Delaware County Fair, August, 2012
-Image credit Kansas State Fair 2010 Sculptured by Sharon BuMann
For my lamb I tried to find a mold that looked solid and sturdy and didn't have many detailed bits sticking out. The trick is to freeze your butter so that you can fish it out of the mold. I'm most concerned about the ears but we will see how they hold up, if you feel the need to embellish your lamb you can use pepper corns, or cloves for the eyes.
-My Easter Butter Lamb
Image Credit - Cap'n Ron's Traditional hand Made Butter Lamb
I have head this tradition described as everything from Delightful to Wacky but for those of us that grew up with it, it is a cherished part of the Easter Basket. For those of us who are Catholic this is the most visual representation of our faith placed in the basket.
Image Credit - Heralsdnet.org
No comments:
Post a Comment