I bake an Easter lamb cake for the holiday, and the results are always ridiculous. My German grandmother (my "Nan") used to buy the same silly lamb cake, I think from Barkus Bakery in Pittsburgh's North Side, every Easter holiday of my childhood. It was her sense of humor to pretend to both love and feel sorry for the cake, as if we had to adopt the lamb because no one else would.
Nowadays, my mom, my kids, and I can be that way, too. We're quick to take up sad plants, pathetic-looking stuffed animals, and cats with naughty personalities so we can celebrate them. After Nan died one spring while I was in my twenties, I couldn't find a bakery near my new home in Brooklyn that sold a 3D lamb cake like the one I'd grown up with. So I went to a baking supply store and bought a lamb cake mold, determined to make my own so that the tradition could continue.
When I say "lamb," I mean it loosely
If you haven't yet seen Easter lamb cakes on social media, you're in for a treat. Mostly, they are of the "nailed it" variety. Martha Stewart has been posting lamb cake content this year, and I'm going to be honest: Even the fancy one she did kind of looks like a dog, no? And she probably hired some of the best food stylists in the business!
There's only so much you can do to dress up a cake that's a log with a head. You can frost it white, you can add coconut "fur," you can give it a crown (I did one year, a little crown of sage) but it's still going to... well... barely look like a lamb. Search #lambcake for more proof.
It's nostalgia—and a bit of tradition
Just like we used to fake "ooo" and "ahh" over Nan's bakery lamb cake, my family dutifully pretends each of my Easter lambs is more beautiful than the last. My cousin hosts large Easter gatherings, often filled with friends, and the friends will side-eye each other while my mom says, straight-faced, "That's the prettiest cake I've ever seen."
I had to push it one year when my kids were young and we had about a dozen children over. The kids always squealed when we cut off the lamb head to serve it, so I baked a red velvet cake for a surprise gory effect. The kids screamed. I think Nan would have loved it.
My very loose tips for baking an Easter lamb cake
Low effort is what I put into the lamb cake. I will bake one, but I will not do it from scratch. Mine are semi-homemade, a store-bought cake mix plus homemade buttercream frosting, or sometimes packaged frosting. This year I have a confetti cake mix ready to go, but in the past I've done lemon, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry—basically anything and everything.
My advice, if you're baking an Easter lamb cake:
✔️ Grease the lamb pan like your life depends on it. I stopped trusting baking spray for this project and flour the pans. I smear shortening all over with a paper towel, then toss flour around inside to stick to the grease, banging out the excess. That way I can see if I missed a spot, and fix it.
✔️ Only fill one half of the mold, the half with the face. Then put the back on top of it and bake it face-down. The cake expands and fills the back. I think, twenty-some years ago, I used to somehow tie the back on, but now I just sit it on top and it works.
✔️ Bake it for 45 minutes to an hour. I usually do about an hour.
✔️ Let it cool completely in the pan. I'll let my cake cool off for hours. Then I gently help the lamb out with a butter knife if needed.
✔️ Give it a night wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge before you frost it, so it's a little stronger. And use a lot of frosting.
✔️ If decorating goes wrong, fake it, assuming the cake is at least baked. One year my lamb was not stable, so I laid it down. Who cares? If you surround it with candy, everyone is excited anyway.
✔️ I used to buy special decorative icing for the face but now I just use whatever is around. One year I gave it only two coffee-bean eyes and a coffee-bean nose. Still cute!
✔️ If you skip a year, no worries. I was traveling last Easter so there was no lamb cake. But it will reappear this year! Maybe traditions get renewed strength when there's an occasional miss.
✔️ As the kids grow, let them in on it. My eldest has helped me make the lamb several times. This is how rituals get passed down. He's decorated my yearly yule log cake, too. Did I not mention my Christmas bûche de Noël tradition? That's another story.
Jessica (she/her) is a contributor with several decades of experience writing lifestyle content and evaluating home, pet, and parenting products for families. A mom of two young adults and a cat, she was previously the Entertainment Editor at Parents and the Senior Lifestyle Editor at American Baby. When not testing toys, subtly starting at people's strollers, or taking meetings to learn about new car seats, she likes to travel. In 2026, she's made it to every continent except Antarctica.
