If you are looking for a light, bouncy lamb cake with a good texture that pairs well with coconut, this is the cake for you!
This recipe comes from Martha K. She was a total sweetheart and sent the lamb cake recipe that was originally included with the vintage Renalde lamb cake mold.
Renalde Lamb Cake
The recipe that came with the original Renalde lamb cake mold. This makes a springy, sturdy cake with a good texture and flavor that unmolds well. A classic, and the closest recipe I’ve found to my grandmother’s lamb cake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs, separated
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 cups sifted cake flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating thoroughly after each one is added.
- Sift dry ingredients together 3 times and add to creamed mixture alternately with milk and vanilla, beating until smooth after each addition.
- Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
- Grease cake mold thoroughly; fill face part of mold with batter. Cover with other half of mold and place in hot oven face down, baking for 45 mins. Bake at 450 degrees for first 15 mins, finish baking at 350 degrees.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 15 mins before loosening to take out.
Notes
This recipe yields enough batter to fill one vintage lamb pan and also make 6 cupcakes.
However, DO NOT make the Renalde frosting. It is terrible.
It makes your lamb look all…sad. And melt-y.
Instead, frost your cake with Vintage Birthday Cake Frosting, and all will be well!
Vintage Birthday Cake Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- 2 pasteurized egg whites (I use egg whites from the carton, measured to equal 2 egg whites)
- 2 T cake flour
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 T milk
- Cream shortening and sugar well.
- Add egg whites and blend well.
- Add flour, vanilla and 1 T milk at a time until right consistency to spread.
- Will frost a three-layer cake.
Yum!
It is not Easter without that Lamb Cake!! Absolutely LOVE it.
xxoo
Ruth!!! I love your recipe posts ~ Seeing the lamb cake makes me smile 🙂
You know, I adore your website and my husband and I love reading the recipes. He calls the lambs “poodle cakes”. They are kind of doggy. I am bereft because I planned to make your rhubarb raspberry mold for Easter brunch and there is no rhubarb to be had anywhere around here. I am also making pinwheel sandwiches and a pink cake. My stepmom told me her mom used to dye the bread for pinwheel sandwiches in pastel colors. Who could resist? Not me. We are having pink and green sandwiches.
Lovely!! Feel free to send me a picture, if you want!
I’m getting ready to make my lamb cake and I have your “10 Tips” in hand. Those tips are really
invaluable!
Happy Easter, Martha K.
Happy Easter to you too, Martha! Email me a pic of your lamb cake! 🙂
I am having so much fun making my first ever lamb cake! Best Easter ever!
(I’m rating the Vintage Birthday cake frosting.) The texture was awesome. Fluffy, and not too sweet. I added a few tablespoons of butter in the end and whipped it in nicely, because I tasted it and thought it needed to taste more like a buttercream, not a shorteningcream frosting. Texture was so fluffy. I will make this frosting again!
Thank you for posting this and your lamb cake tips! I found this site just as I was starting to make my cake and it’s the best cake recipe. I’m going to use it for birthday cakes too! (i was concerned about using eggs in the frosting so i used a different buttercream frosting.) I’m trying to track down the lamb mold you used – do you have pics of the one you have? What brand is it?
Hi! In the Vintage Bakery Birthday Cake frosting, is the T for tsp or tablespoon? Thanks! (I just see a T)
The capitol T is for tablespoon! 🙂
I can’t seem to get access to the Vintage Birthday Cake Frosting recipe…. you say not to use the Reynaude one but… where is the other one.. link doesn’t seem to work..
Sorry! Here you go!
Vintage Birthday Cake Frosting
Ingredients
1/2 cup shortening
1 lb powdered sugar
2 pasteurized egg whites (I use egg whites from the carton, measured to equal 2 egg whites)
2 T cake flour
2 tsp vanilla
3 T milk
Cream shortening and sugar well.
Add egg whites and blend well.
Add flour, vanilla and 1 T milk at a time until right consistency to spread.
Will frost a three-layer cake.
thanks so much!! going to make with my granddaughter!!
Dear Ruth, I haven’t made “The Renalde Lamb Cake for a few years now, but when I got your e-mail and found The Renalde recipe with my mother’s writing on it , I was just lifted up. My husband and I had been planning to go to visit his Greek family in Thessaloniki, Greece on March 25 (especially to see my sweet Godson who is 4 1/2 yrs old.) On a Skype call he had told me all the things he wanted to do with me because we would be there with him for Easter, which is very beautiful in Greece. When we had to cancel our trip, the next time we Skyped with him he had been told that we wouldn’t be able to come. He told me that he was crying for me because I wouldn’t be with him. Then he said that even though he was crying, what was most important was that I was well and healthy and happy. At that moment I decided that I would dye red eggs for my boy and make a Greek Easter Bread and to show him on Skype. Now after you have reminded me with your e-mail, I’ll also make A Lamby Cake using my sweet mother’s recipe and mold for him. I love the picture of the Lamb Cake with the wreath around it’s head and around the base (Is it Thyme?) Also, I am watching a Gambel’s Quail nest in my yard. the eggs are white with brown and kind of bluish speckles on them. In the back of my mind I thought that they would make beautiful little dyed eggs (but of course, I wouldn’t ever do that. But, I found “Jelly Belly Speckled Chocolate Malted Eggs” at a grocery store that are about the size of quail eggs and look about like my thought. So, I think I’ll put them around the base of the lamb next to the thyme.
Thank you Ruth! You have lifted my spirits more than I can ever express and most of all, you have reminded me of what is important in life. My little quail mother reminds me every day when I watch her selflessness and determination.
Kalo Pascha! (Happy Easter in Greek) Martha K.
Just made this cake and absolutely loved it! Thank you for sharing this recipe. Not sure about the frosting because I don’t like the egg whites in there. 🤔