Spring time means new born animals, leaves on trees, grass starting to grow, and flowers pushing up in the garden. It is a time for new life and fun food. I enjoy food art. Spring and Easter are a perfect time to make cute food to celebrate. Last year I shared the classic cute bunny cake for spring and Easter. It is made from 2 round cakes with artistic cuts on one cake. The classic bunny cake has been around since the 1950’s.
This year I wanted to learn how to make a lamb cake and started searching all over the internet. A lamb is a symbol of renewal and has long been at the center of Easter tradition. Let’s consider some of the different ways to make cakes that look like a lamb.
I. Lamb Cake Using a Lamb Mold
This is one of the most popular ways to make a lamb cake. There are numerous posts with a molded lamb cake. Wilton has great instructions on how to make the lamb cake with the Wilton 3D standing cake pan. They decorated the cake with flat white icing first. Then using an icing tip and bag, they added swirls on the body for wool and colored accents. I personally would find this way of decorating hard as I’ve never been great at piping icing details. The face is the flat white icing with colors for lines for mouth and eyes. Their lamb’s face is cute and not hard to make
Wilton also has a cake iced with a spatula and leaving the face bare. You can make this with white cake or chocolate. I think it’s really cute and Wilton ranks it for a beginner.
If you do a search for lamb cakes, you will find hundreds of posts with varying ways to decorate one. The faces often look very different. Some of the cakes show how hard it can be working with a mold. The faces are distorted. Part of the difference in the face is the brand of lamb mold you are using. Nordic Ware‘s 3 D Lamb Cake Pan is another standing lamb cake. Below is their chocolate version with the body covered in icing and the head bare chocolate cake.
The Farm Wife Cooks has a great post using the Nordic Ware mold pan: 3 Ways to Decorate Your Easter Lamb Cake.
First version: Glaze the cake and garnish with green coconut and jelly beans.
Second version: Dust with powdered sugar and decorate with dusted berries.
Lay the cake flat to cover it with powdered sugar. Stand up cake and dust platter with powered sugar too. Garnsh with dusted berries for a beautiful rustic Easter cake. I personally love rustic cakes and this one is lovely.
The third version is the traditional iced cake.
A glaze was used on the face. Then using a buttercream icing piped rosettes were placed around the body. A straw was used to pop out the eyes and then a knife was used to make the nose and mouth. Finally pre-made cake decorations from Walmart and green coconut decorate the cake.
No matter the brand of mold you use, the piped icing is probably the most popular decorated lamb cake. An attractive alternative is using coconut on white icing to make a wool coat for the lamb. I really loved this idea as a coconut cake was the first cake I learned to make as a child. It was fun and delicious. Below is a version shared at A Taste of Home with coconut on the body and candy on the face. A lamb cake looks great as a centerpiece for Easter dinner.
II. A Lamb Cake Using Round Cake Pans
I like the idea of not having to spend $20 to $30 for a lamb cake mold. My small home does not have lots of storage space. There are so many ways to decorate a round cake for Easter with a bunny theme. The easiest is Kraft’s Simple Lamb Cake. Bake your favorite cake and add white icing on the cake. Use miniature marshmellows to circle the top of the cake once. Then add 2 more rows of marshmellows at the top to make wool coming down to meet his face. Use melted chocolate to make eyes and mouth. A candy is the nose. Cookies are ears. So cute and easy.
One of the most common methods to decorate a round cake is using flat white icing on the whole cake. Then add any decorative piping for a wooly frame for the face. Below is a sponge cake decorated with a cream icing. Melted chocolate was used for facial features. Round small crackers or cookies are the ears.
You can easily decorate a round cake with a cake topper made for the season. Below is a great example from Good Housekeeping. This handmade lamb cake topper is made with a Rice Krispies treat, cotton candy, and marshmellows. Everything is edible and unexpected.
Here are two more toppers from Etsy. Both items are shown as for babies but are perfect for spring too. First is Etsy’s Baby Lamb. Isn’t it a cutie? You can use it every year.
Second is Etsy’s Fluffy Lamb Candle. It’s adorable and only $9.99.
Online there are many toppers and cookie molds to help you decorate your cake. Most would be put on the top, but they can also be added to sides of a cake for a cute cake. Below are a set of two lamb cookie cutters. Bake and decorate your cookies for a colorful display.
An idea for your cake is decorating the top with fondant lambs or candy. There are tutorials online if you want to make your own. If you are buying, there are many choices. A hand-molded chocolate sheep from St. Croix Chocolate Company is delightfully decorative as well as delicious
III. Make Your Own Shaped Cake
The Food Network has a darling lamb cake you make from 3 round cakes. Complete instructions are givien at How to Make an Easter Lamb Cake. It is a more complex cake design.
The Food Network has another recipe with instructions that makes a lamb cake from cupcakes. It seems much easier to me than cutting 3 cakes like the recipe above. Who doesn’t love cute cupcakes?
Whether you are an accomplished baker or a beginner in decorated cakes, there is a cake just right for you to make. Happy Easter!
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These are so sweet! I won’t be making a lamb cake but the cupcake one is gorgeous!
I love the cupcake one too! Have a great week.
…sweet and cute.
I wish we were doing Easter with the kids and I’d make one of these — they’re all cute and I have definite favorites!
Aww! How cute!
These all look perfect for Easter, especially if you are having visitors. I love the look of the one’s using marshmallows.
Wow Carol. So many different types of bunny cakes. I just made one for my daughter for Easter and you made many. You are amazing.
Cruisin Paul
Oh these are all adorable. Back in the day my mom had taken a Wilton cake decorating class and I remember her making the lamb cake.
These are all so cute!
So many cute ideas! I have made lamb cupcakes before but never a lamb cake.
I think the Kraft Easy Lamb Cake would be so much fun to do with the kiddos. It’s so adorable!
Every single one of them is adorable. I love these. Pinned & Tweeted. Thank you for sharing at #aclwcc.
thanks for sharing!
I love these so much, I’ve pinned them for later. I think my kids would like the one with marshmallows the best…mmmm.
good choice – have a great week!
Darling, darling, darling! I love lamb cakes but have never tried to make one myself. Thank you for all these ideas!
Thanks so much for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I’m featuring you this week!
thanks so much for the feature – Happy Thursday!
Thanks for sharing on Happiness is Homemade at LifeasaLEOWife.com. Lamb cakes are the PERFECT Easter dinner desert because Easter is all about Jesus who is the Lamb of God. I just love this idea! I hope that you will come over & share on my other link party (Crafty Creators {Thurs-Mon}) so that this post will reach a larger audience! You can share up to 5 posts on that party.
XOXO,
Niki ~ Life as a LEO Wife
Thanks for the kind words and invitation. I go join the Crafty Creators now.