Mould for baking babka cakes

A typical mould for baking baby or babki – a cake commonly eaten at Easter – has a body decorated with fluted sides and a central chimney. This type of mould allows the cake to take a shape originally inspired by the Turkish turban headdress, which has been used since the late 18th century. Easter babka cakes, once also called babie kołacze, made from wheat flour, a large number of eggs, yeast, and saffron, remain among the most important Easter dishes to this day. The mould here is distinguished by its size – the diameter at the top is 41 cm, and at the base of the chimney, it measures 27 cm. It is the largest of the 52 babka moulds in the museum's ethnographic collection. Iwona Karwowska