A lamb cake can be a nice addition to your Easter dinner menu. It makes a wonderful theme dessert, and it can also double as a centerpiece on a buffet table. One of the nicest things about this cake design is that you can easily make it using a shaped pan, or you can create your cake using round cake pans and a little imagination.
Lamb Cakes Made From Molds
The easiest way to create an Easter lamb cake is to bake a pound cake in a shaped pan. If you're lucky, you'll find one of Wilton's retired, single-layer lamb character pans to bake your cake in. There are also several 3-D lamb cake molds currently on the market that will help you create a great base you can decorate. Each of the following pans is slightly different from the others and comes with its own instructions.
- Nordic Ware Spring Lamb 3-D Cake Mold - This cake mold produces a 7 1/2 x 11 1/4 x 3 1/2-inch stand up cake. It's priced around $15.
- Wilton Stand Up Lamb Pan - Similar to the Nordic Ware pan, this pan produces a 3-D cake that measures approximately 10 x 4-1/2 x 7 inches before decorating. It also sells around $15.
- 12-inch Lamb Cake Mold - This heavy-duty aluminum mold produces 3-D lamb cake, and it's also available in a 7-inch size. Prices run just under $70 for the larger mold and just under $50 for the smaller mold.
Decorating Ideas
Once your lamb cake is baked and cooled, you can begin decorating it. If you used a single-layer lamb pan, you can place the cake on an similarly-sized cake board or stand. If you used a 3-D mold, you'll need to ice the flat side of each half of the cake with buttercream and fit them together before placing the cake in an upright position on a cake plate, board or stand.
The decorating ideas that follow can be adapted to either style of cake. Ice the cake with buttercream to begin, and then get creative.
- Use the tines of a fork to create swirls in the icing that make it look like wool.
- Try piping on "wool" using a decorating bag equipped with star or flower tip.
- Alternatively, stick mini marshmallows or shredded coconut to the buttercream icing to create the wool.
- Use M&M'S or chocolate chips to create the lamb's eyes and nose.
- Use green buttercream and a grass decorating tip to pipe grass around the bottom of the lamb for a pretty base.
- Sprinkle candy eggs around the base to give the cake a real Easter feel.
Create a Lamb Cake From Scratch
The following instructions will help you create an Easter lamb cake from easy-to-find pans that you may already have in your kitchen. This cake won't look like the traditional cake made using a 3-D cake pan, but it will still make an adorable dessert.
- Bake any type of pound cake in a 10-inch round pan.
- Bake a second cake in a 6-inch round pan.
- Let both cakes cool and apply a crumb coat of white buttercream. Give the icing time to firm up, and then apply a second layer of buttercream so no crumbs show.
- Place the 10-inch cake on a 12-inch cake board circle, and place the 6-inch cake on top.
- Roll out a layer of fondant, place the 6-inch pan on top of it, and run a knife around the edge of the pan to create a circle of fondant that will become the base for the lamb's smooth face.
- Lay the fondant circle on top of the 6-inch cake, and smooth it down.
- Use more rolled fondant, colored however you prefer, to create the lamb's facial features, ears, and any other embellishments you like, and gently press them on top of the smooth fondant layer. Brush thinned royal icing or water onto the back of the features so they stick when you put them in their final place.
- Cut two Twinkies in half. These will be the base for the lamb's four legs.
- Cover the round-ended half of each piece in black fondant or chocolate buttercream to create hooves, and then cover the rest of each Twinkie with white fondant to finish the legs.
- Using a clock face as your guide, arrange the Twinkies with the cut ends snug against the bottom cake layer at 2, 5, 7, and 10 o'clock.
- Add buttercream to a piping bag equipped with a flower tip, and begin piping swirls of "wool" around the lamb's face and ears, working down over the bottom layer/body cake. Pipe a short buttercream tail at the back, and your fluffy lamb is complete.
Start an Easter Cake Tradition
Whether you make a lamb cake from a mold or create a cake of your own design, your family is bound to love having a cake that is special enough to match this important holiday. You might even have fun surprising your family with an entirely new lamb design each year. Just imagine all the fun they'll have guessing which kind of lamb cake you'll come up with next!
