Break Away from the Herd with Lamb Cupcakes!

Need to shake up your cupcake routine this spring? I always seem to bring the same cupcakes & desserts to everything we go to. I wanted to break away from the herd and do something different that would stand out on the table! I know...ego-maniac right?

Who doesn’t like delicious cupcakes that are uber cute?? When I showed the picture of these Lamb Cupcakes to my "flock," I practically had a stampede headed to the kitchen to make them.

I will say these took a little bit of time to put together, but are completely worth the effort! Wait until you see how cute these lambs turned out! Let me tell you how we made them.

Start by preheating the oven to 350°F and line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. If you haven’t set out the butter to soften, now is a great time to do it. You will need 2 cups of butter (4 sticks) for the cupcakes and frosting.

Grab a large mixing bowl and get your mixer ready! You will need 1 box of white cake mix. The pre-made mix makes this one step easier! I am all about convenience. What a great idea!

Pour in 1 cup milk...

...then put in 3 eggs.

The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice. I suppose, I could have been on my game and just squeezed the orange that I had for the zest. But, I have to admit - I just used refrigerated OJ.

Then zest 2 teaspoons of orange zest. If you don’t have a zester, just use a fine cheese grater. The whole kitchen smelled amazing when I zested the orange and added it to the batter.

Finally don’t forget to add in the 1/2 cup of softened butter!

Beat the batter on Medium speed until smooth. Again, the orange zest is just so different than what I usually do, I felt like I was on a cupcake baking challenge show! I know, I need to get a life and stop watching so many cooking shows. Check out how the batter gets light and creamy!

After mixing the batter, hand stir in a small bottle of flower-shaped cake sprinkles. What a great idea this is! It’s fun, festive and feels like spring!

Pour the batter into paper liners to about 1/3 to 1/2 full and bake for 18-22 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, It’s time to make the frosting!

In another bowl, place 1 1/2 cups of softened butter.

Add in 2 cups of powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

With a small spatula, scoop out the marshmallow creme from the two 7 oz jars (you need 14 ounces total) of marshmallow creme and place in the mixing bowl.

This is where it gets fun and sticky!! Well, for my herd of little helpers, everything is sticky... but that’s life these days!

Start to beat on Low speed so the powdered sugar doesn’t go everywhere. As my youngest shrieked with laughter and exclaimed..."look at this!" (nothing good ever comes with my children saying that phrase). I thought I would add that in as my helpers tend to be a little cleaner when we start mixing on a lower mixer speed! Then increase the speed to Medium until the frosting is well mixed. The frosting is stickier than typical frosting. It needs to be that way to hold the marshmallow decorations.

Once the frosting is ready, it’s time to make the lamb’s faces. Take 24 black gumdrops and flatten each with your thumb so they are about 1/4 of an inch thick. My crew thought it would be more fun to roll them with their rolling pins (Ok, they attempted to beat the gumdrops flat). But using my thumb actually worked the best to flatten the gumdrop.

I purchased the eyes in the cake decorating section of one of my local stores. Using the frosting, stick two eyes onto the top part of one side of the gumdrop. Then poke two holes in the bottom on the same side of the gumdrop to make the nostrils.

Poke 2 holes in the top of the gumdrop to insert a cut piece of licorice nibs to make the ears.

Frost the cupcakes by making a small mound of icing in the middle of the cupcake.

Attach the lamb face onto the front 1/3 part of the frosting on the cupcake. Arrange the mini marshmallows on top of the frosting and gently press the marshmallows into the frosting.

The last step is to insert a licorice piece at the back part of the cupcake to make a tail.

They look like this!

Here’s how we brought them to a family get-together this weekend - they were a huge hit with our family (everyone asked for the recipe!) and they tasted incredible. A few of our nephews have allergies, so I was able to take a cupcake recipe that they could eat and just decorate it like the other cupcakes. For variety as you can see I added in a black sheep to the family! (a chocolate cupcake!) Well, that’s a story for another time....

Just like that, you’re breaking away from the herd to make something completely different and totally cute! I hope you decide to give these Lamb Cupcakes a try and don’t forget to tell me about your cupcake making.

Check back in a few days when Amanda will share a delicious dinner idea.

Alex is paid to write for the Land O’Lakes Recipe Buzz® Blog.