Yeast cake - Big Blobs? washing

I have noticed that on a number of my brews the yeast cake has many big blobs, like ricotta curds. This happens using new or recycled yeast and with ales and lagers. I want to wash this cake.

Questions; Are the blobs yeast, trub, or some other stuff? Can I wash this cake and retrieve good yeast?

This is how some yeast strains behave. Each behave differently, some clump together more than others, some dont clump at all. I remembered when I first switched from plastic buckets (cant see anything), to glass carboys. The violent fermentation created a crazy convection current with the clumped yeast colonies starting at the bottom, and as they eat the sugars and create CO2, would rise to the top then fall back down as the CO2 was expelled. I kid you not, it looked like it was boiling. Talk about freaking out

Yes I know what you mean. I had had several fermentations which looked like snow storms in one of these snowman globes, and lasted for days. I figured this was good because it showed life and the beer tasted good. I was only curious because I want to harvest the yeasty. Now that I know the clumps are yeast I will wash the carboys.