How can we make Easter celebrations even more meaningful? After all, Easter is the most significant holy day on the Christian calendar. It is too bad that when it comes to our traditions, Easter baskets, chocolate bunnies, and egg hunts don’t quite capture any of that significance.

So recently, when I came across an adorable lamb cake mold, I thought it would make a delicious dessert as well as a cute “teaching” centerpiece for my Easter table.

Why not bake this little cake and ask your little ones to join in decorating him? As you do, you could tell the vivid and moving story of the first Passover lamb that was offered so that the firstborn sons of the children of Israel would be saved. As you do, be sure to explain that this was a prophetic picture of what Jesus would do for the children of the whole world. As John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold he Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Here are some significant scriptures for your meditation. These are ones we will use to tell our grandchildren the amazing story of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

  • Exodus 12 — The first Passover
  • John 1:29 — John proclaims Jesus as the Lamb
  • Luke 22:13–19 — The last Passover (Note: Lamb is normally part of all Passover celebrations, but in the passage there is no lamb mentioned. Why? Because Jesus Himself was to be the Lamb!)
  • Revelation 5:6–8 — The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world

I was very happy with the cake pan I purchased on Amazon.com. It was Kitchen Supply Large Lamb Cake Mold.

This recipe will make enough batter for your lamb cake and leave you enough left over for about 4–6 cupcakes. I suggest you bake this ahead of time and freeze it until the night before you plan to decorate it.

You need to use a pound cake recipe to ensure it is firm enough to stand upright. Make sure you grease the mold well. Take your time to coat all the creases of the pan. Finish with a light dusting of flour to make it easy to remove after it has completely cooled.

Pound Cake:

  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, plus more for pan
  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 5 eggs
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour your cake mold carefully to ensure it is easy to remove.

With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in vanilla.

Pour batter into the bottom pan of your lamb mold, almost to the rim of the mold. Place the top part of the mold over the bottom and secure together with a bit of kitchen twine. Your lamb cake mold may have its own specific instructions.

You will have some batter left over for a few cupcakes. Bake for 45 minutes.

Be sure to cool completely before gently removing from the pan.

Butter Cream Frosting:

  • 1 stick of butter, softened
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4 cups powder sugar
  • 1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a mixer at medium speed until whipped nicely and spreadable. If you need to add more milk to make it smoother, add a teaspoon at a time. If the icing is too runny, add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time. Once it’s all mixed, add your teal food coloring (or whatever color you choose), a very little at a time until you get the color you like. The color is very concentrated, so use the end of a toothpick to add the color. Mix it together until blended, on low speed.

You will need:

  • Wilton 12-inch disposable decorating bags
  • Wilton 6-inch flat spatula (to spread the base coat), and a pointed Wilton spatula for the face (optional)
  • Wilton tip #4 for the wooly coat
  • Wilton gel food coloring for the base, in whatever spring color you choose
  • 2 batches buttercream (1 batch white, and 1 batch in a spring color)

After frosting the cake, we placed some colored straw and edible pansies to decorate the cake stand. Then we carefully tied a pretty ribbon around its neck.