For reasons I cannot explain (but you are free to speculate on 
) we have been tasked to make a lamb dish in the form of a cake, instead of the usual cake in the shape of a lamb. Either a sheet “cake”, or a two layer round cake, using ground lamb with…something to keep it solid, and perhaps mashed potato(?) “frosting”.
What is the culinary equivalent of a “green thumb”, by the way?
Start with a meatloaf recipe, perhaps?
Exactly.
You’re being asked to invent meatloaf. This is fundamentally a solved problem.
But I’m not following the reference to a “green thumb”. It’s food. You really don’t want to be growing anything.
“Meatloaf” is not a solved problem. Lamb meatloaf doesn’t usually hold together very well, and I need this to be mostly lamb (avoiding other meats as much as possible) while retaining a basic cake shape, so what binders and seasoning are best for what I am trying to accomplish?
Less like meatloaf and more like döner/shawarma/donair style of rotating meats?
I once had a boss who didn’t eat sweets. So I made him a birthday cake from deli meat with a top and bottom of onion loaf. I iced it with whipped herbed cream cheese. So you could just turn the top slice upside down and eat it like a sandwich. It was a real hit.
For lamb meatloaf I think I would go with garlic, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram. And I would used minced dried onion to soak up the extra juice and add warm flavor. It wants heat, I think, but I’d mince dried red pepper and again, let it soak up the juice as it cooks. That will also look pretty. (Funfetti! Maybe you need red, yellow, and green?)
And I can’t think of a better “icing” than the herbed cream cheese. It was very good. Maybe you could use a filling of cucumber and mint or pepper jelly between the layers? Leave some greek yogurt overnight in cheesecloth to thicken it more and make the sauce with that. Might even get thick enough to be icing?
For a binder I would use eggs and breadcrumbs. Did I mention eggs? You need them.
Another way to go would be to look at lamb pate recipes. Does your celebrant like liver?
I think that much lamb pate would be a bit much. This is for a social gathering of 30 to 40 people, with others bringing the more traditional cakes shaped like lamb. BTW, I never considered cream cheese as a “frosting”, but I like it.
I love it. That’s going to be hilarious! Look at gyro meat recipes and add lightness and binders (eggs and breadcrumbs). Consider providing the tiny pitas on the side. Also, searching for that brought up whipped feta, which is an excellent frosting idea. I’ve never worked with it, so don’t know how cooperative it would be.
Eggs and bread crumbs will be your binders holding it all together.
That said, I have never tried a lamb meatloaf so not sure what challenges there might me (too much fat or not enough fat, what spices to use and so on).
Here is one lamb meatloaf recipe. Doesn’t look all that great to me but I’ve never tried it. There are probably more to be found out there. If you figure it out and it is good please share the recipe with us!
Unfortunately, I am trying to get it to look like a cake, not a meatloaf. I wonder if a bundt cake pan might do the trick?
That’s the thing; can you use a meatloaf recipe but shaped like a rectangular sheet cake or a round two-layer cake?
Same as for gardening, where “a green thumb” means “taking the trouble to learn what works, and following good practices consistently”.
Actually, I meant what is the culinary equivalent of the term “green thumb”?
Last time I saw one of these it was lamb in aspic, in a lamb mold with garnish- mint mostly, IIRC. SCA event, and it was not to my taste.
I too was thinking aspic might be a route to make it look like a cake. Not sure how and not sure if it would make it yucky (I think it might) but something to think about.
Sounds like a shepherd’s pie.
It sounds like anything but. A shepherd’s pie is definitely not firm enough.
Look up recipes for gyro meat made with ground meat. The trick is you overwork/knead the meat. It makes it hold together tightly the way the gyros at restaurants do. You can then bake it in a lamb pan (the kind you bake lamb cakes in. Here’s one: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/173420/traditional-gyro-meat/
But, once again, I am NOT cooking it in a lamb pan. I want it to look, as much as is possible, a pastry-type cake.