Have you thought about baking a cake with that cute lamb cake mold for Easter? Have you tried, and it didn’t turn out quite the way you thought it would? Yep, I’ve been there too. After lots of trial and error, I’ve got all the tips and tricks you need to get that cake to come out perfectly.
Easter Lamb Cake Mold
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This cute little lamb cake has been a part of my family’s Easter tradition as long as I can remember. When I started my own farm family, I knew that I wanted to continue the tradition. While this cake is super-adorable, there are a few tricks to making it that you need to know before you get started.
While I’ve got the cake part figured out, I do not have the decorating part down. I mean, really… look at the pictures from the first time I posted about this little guy. Clearly, cake decorating is not my strong suit. To help with that, I’ve enlisted the help of my friend Liz from The Farmwife Cooks. She is a whiz at cake decorating, and she has some great ideas for you in this post: 3 Ways to Decorate an Easter Lamb Cake.
Cake design and photo by Liz from The Farmwife Cooks.
Let me give you a heads up. This is a long post. I’ve got a lot of little tips that will help you make this cake right the first time. Read them all, print the recipe, and go for it!
First we need to talk about the cake recipe. This is a pound cake recipe, but it has to be a bit of a… special recipe. If the cake has too much flour, it’s pretty dense, gets a bit dry, and doesn’t have the best flavor. Too much liquid (and not enough flour), and the cake doesn’t release from the lamb cake mold very well, and doesn’t hold the details from the mold. Trust me, there is more than one headless Easter lamb cake in my kitchen that will attest to these problems!
So. Please follow this recipe exactly!
If you are looking for a truly fantastic pound cake recipe, check out this Million Dollar Pound Cake from my friend Cris at Goodeness Gracious. If you want to make the lamb cake mold, keep reading, and print out this recipe!
Your electric mixer is going to get a workout with this recipe, so take a few minutes to give it a pep talk and make friends before you get started.
You need to start with softened butter. If you forget to take the butter out of the refrigerator (like I do, almost every time), you can soften butter in the microwave. My microwave has a “soften butter” setting, so I just use that. To soften 2 sticks of butter, it runs for a minute and a half on low power.
Cake design and photo by Liz from The Farmwife Cooks.
Cream the butter and sugar together in the mixer, on medium speed, until it’s light and fluffy. Scrape the sides down as you need to, so everything gets incorporated. It will take 4-6 minutes to get the right consistency. The butter will lighten in color, and it will look very fluffy when it’s done.
Then start adding the eggs. Scrape everything down to the bottom of the bowl and turn the mixer back on medium-low. Add one egg at a time, and let each egg fully incorporate into the sugar mixture before you add the next one. When all the eggs are incorporated into the sugar mixture, do the same with the vanilla and milk.
Next up is the flour. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. When the liquid ingredients are all mixed together, stop the mixer. Add half of the flour mixture, and turn the mixer back on low. When the first part of the flour is mixed in, add in the second half of the flour mixture. Keep the mixer going until everything is just mixed together. You’ll probably need to stop the mixer a couple of times to scrape the sides down. This batter will still be pretty thick when you’re done.
Cake design and photo by Liz from The Farmwife Cooks.
Now we need to have a conversation about the Easter lamb cake mold. You need to make friends with Crisco for this cake. I mean, best friends. If you haven’t met Crisco yet, this is the perfect time to make an introduction. This lamb cake mold needs to be greased within an inch of its life.
And I am so not kidding about this.
When you think you have it greased enough, go back and add more. I’m not talking about a thin, light coating. I’m talking about digging in with your fingers, and smearing that stuff all over the inside. Pay close attention to the ears (they cook fast, so the cake will stick) and the nose (it’s deep enough that it’s hard to reach).
Check out the photo below. The mold on the left has no Crisco. The mold on the right is ready for cake batter. That’s the look we’re going for. Let’s call it…. frosted.
Once both halves of your lamb cake mold are greased as if your life depends on it, it’s time to fill it with the cake batter. Place the front half of the lamb on a lipped cookie sheet. Fill the mold with the cake batter. Use a spatula to get it evenly spread through the mold, gently filling in all the nooks and crannies. You want the batter to be even with the top of the mold. If you don’t fill it enough, it won’t rise and fill the other half of the mold. If you fill it too full, it will spill out between the sides of the mold. So fill it level.
If you have extra batter left over (I did), you can make some mini pound cakes! I used a brownie bar pan to make a few mini cakes. Just bake those at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes for an individual-sized treat.
When the cake is done, the top of the mold (the back of the lamb) should lift off. If you greased it well enough, it will lift off easily. The back of the cake won’t be very golden brown, but the front will be! Take the top half of the mold off, and let the cake cool inside the mold for 15-20 minutes. Then gently turn the cake out of the bottom half of the mold. You may need to use a knife to loosen the cake right around the edges. Stand the cake up on a wire rack to cool, or you’ll get wire imprints on the poor little lamb. Let the Easter lamb cake cool completely before frosting.
Now that you’ve got this Easter lamb cake baked and cooled, it’s time to go check out Liz’s post to see 3 Ways to Decorate an Easter Lamb Cake!
Enjoy!
3 Ways to Take the Fear Out of This Recipe
- Different Types of Flour
- What’s the Difference Between Baking Soda & Baking Powder?
- How Much Fat is in Milk?
3 More Recipes to Try
- Summer Berry Greek Yogurt Parfait
- Slow Cooker Dulce de Leche Chocolate Dip
- Easy Homemade Whipped Cream
Printable Recipe Card for Easter Lamb Cake Mold
Easter Lamb Cake Mold
Ingredients
- 1 cup 2 sticks salted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In an electric mixer, beat softened butter on low for 1 minute. Then add sugar, and beat on medium until light and fluffy, about 4-6 minutes. Scrape down sides as needed.
- Reduce mixer speed to medium-low. Add eggs, one at a time, letting each egg completely incorporate into sugar mixture before adding the next egg. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
- Add vanilla, and let incorporate.
- Add milk, and let incorporate.
- In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Turn off mixer. Add half of the flour mixture. Turn mixer on low, then gradually increase speed to medium-low. Mix until first half of flour mixture is almost completely incorporated, scraping down as needed. Then add the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until the flour mixture is just mixed into the batter. Batter will be thick.
- Heavily grease the inside of both halves of the lamb cake mold with Crisco.
- Pour the cake batter into the front half of the lamb cake mold. Using a spatula, spread the batter out to fill every corner. Fill the mold level, do not over fill.
- Place the back half of the lamb cake mold on top. Place the mold on a lipped baking sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes, until the back half of the mold lifts off easily, the cake is golden brown, and a toothpick in the center of the cake tests clean.
- Take back half of mold off the cake. Let cool, inside the front half of the mold, on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes.
- After cooling for 15-20 minutes, turn the cake out of the front half of the mold onto the wire rack. To avoid wire impressions in the cake, let cool standing up.
- Cool completely before icing.
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So was I supposed to use the Million Dollar Pound Cake recipe or yours. That was confusing and I used the Million Dollar one. It’s baking right now, I’ll let you know!
Cece, let me know how it goes! The Million Dollar Pound Cake might have too much butter and might not hold the lamb shape very well.
My mold is cast iron. What changes do I need to make?
Since I don’t have a cast iron mold, I can’t be sure what changes you need. I suspect that you will need to increase the cooking time, to give the mold enough time to heat up.
I am getting ready to make your Easter Lamb Cake and was wondering if the amounts are correct for the vanilla and baking powder (1 Tablespoon each) as stated in your recipe. It just seemed like a lot.
Yes, those amounts are correct. You can decrease the vanilla a little if you want a milder flavor to the cake.
Marybeth, thank you so much for answering my questions so quickly. My mom made 3 Easter Lamb cakes every year. When she passed away, I tried to keep up the tradition and make the lambs every year. Her recipe was never written quite right with ingredients and bake time to be right for me to make the cakes or for me to accomplish the best Lamb cake. Your recipe was the very first one that actually made the Lamb cake come out of the mold and was not a rock hard (door stop) cake. I only changed the flour to cake flour and used 2 percent milk. I tried to send you a photo of the lamb cake, but it wouldn’t send. Thank you so much for your wonderful recipe and for helping me continue our Lamb Cake Easter tradition. Loved your precise and detailed instructions. Happy Easter!
Where do I buy a mold like this?
You can find one on Amazon here (referral link): http://amzn.to/2CU1hAg
lamb cake is also a family tradition. and you can count on one of my darling children or grandchildren (all grown and should know better) to put a black jelly bean behind the butt of the lamb. i dye coconut green and put this around the lamb after i decorate him and then add the jelly beans onto the coconut. i always put toothpicks in the ears and nose section and they always come out great.
This is the lamb mold I have. Inherited from my grandma. My husband doesn’t think it looks much like a lamb and calls it my Easter Dog Cake but everyone loves it, especially me. Over the years I have had the head start to bend to one side. I just take a metal BBQ skewer and push it down through the head down to the plate. And in the circle handle at the top of the skewer I tie a ribbon bow. No one is the wiser.
I’m baking your recipe in my lamb mold right now for the first time ever! Cautiously excited. My mom’s friend used to make my sisters and me a lamb cake for our birthdays. I just recently decided I’m going to try this for Easter and today is my trial run!
You can do it! Good luck, and let me know how it turns out!
Sometimes you have to use your “imaginoscope” to see that it’s a lamb… but we love it anyway! Love your skewer idea to hold on that head, I’ve had it fall off before, too! Happy Easter!
Hello! Looking forward to trying this recipe. EVERY Easter I look for a new recipe bc I can’t get it right…fingers crossed. One question, can I substitute butter (lots of butter:) for Crisco and a light dusting of flour for my mold?
Thank you!!
I made this today, increasing the recipe amounts by half for my Wilton lamb cake mold, which calls for 6 cups of batter. 1.5 times the recipe was enough for the mold and 12 mini cupcakes. It’s in the oven now, so I don’t know how it turned out, but the batter is yummy! Thanks for the recipe!
The cake tastes great. Came out of the mold easily , followed your direction exactly! Thanks so much! Hope the decorating goes as smoothly
Hello Marybeth, Happy Easter! Do you recommend the Million Dollar Pound Cake recipe, which is not specifically made in a lamb mold, or the recipe at the end of your instructions? One has salt and baking powder, the other doesn’t.
Use the recipe in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. It’s an adaptation from the Million Dollar Pound Cake recipe. The original Million Dollar Pound Cake doesn’t hold the lamb shape very well.
Hooray! Have fun with the decorating!
My pleasure! I hope your cake turns out as delicious as the batter was! 🙂
You can PROBABLY substitute butter for Crisco inside the mold. The flour dusting will help. I haven’t tried using butter to grease the pan before, so I can’t promise any results. Let me know how it turns out!
Darn! Just put the wrong recipe in the mold, in the oven. Thank you for the fast feedback, though! Will have to go for the perfect lamb next year again!
Well, shoot! The good news is that it will taste delicious, even if it doesn’t exactly look like a lamb. If it falls apart, break the cake up and toss it with some whipped cream to make a trifle instead!