If you bake it in the oven it will form. Make it in a pot on the stovetop. There are a lot of recipes online, my favorite is you heat oil, pour in half your kugel recipe, pour in meat, and pour in rest of kugel. Let it cook overnight. Good luck!
P.S. Some people like it just potatoes, without any eggs. I prefer the kugel recipe.
BTW, my father comes from Poland. Correct pronunciation is yaptzuk.