diff --git a/moto/awslambda/models.py b/moto/awslambda/models.py
index a3b1f715f..1e651cb04 100644
--- a/moto/awslambda/models.py
+++ b/moto/awslambda/models.py
@@ -198,10 +198,26 @@ class LambdaFunction(BaseModel):
             if prop in properties:
                 spec[prop] = properties[prop]
 
+        # when ZipFile is present in CloudFormation, per the official docs,
+        # the code it's a plaintext code snippet up to 4096 bytes.
+        # this snippet converts this plaintext code to a proper base64-encoded ZIP file.
+        if 'ZipFile' in properties['Code']:
+            spec['Code']['ZipFile'] = base64.b64encode(
+                cls._create_zipfile_from_plaintext_code(spec['Code']['ZipFile']))
+
         backend = lambda_backends[region_name]
         fn = backend.create_function(spec)
         return fn
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _create_zipfile_from_plaintext_code(code):
+        zip_output = io.BytesIO()
+        zip_file = zipfile.ZipFile(zip_output, 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
+        zip_file.writestr('lambda_function.zip', code)
+        zip_file.close()
+        zip_output.seek(0)
+        return zip_output.read()
+
 
 class LambdaBackend(BaseBackend):
 
diff --git a/tests/test_cloudformation/test_cloudformation_stack_integration.py b/tests/test_cloudformation/test_cloudformation_stack_integration.py
index 2480ee051..87dcfd950 100644
--- a/tests/test_cloudformation/test_cloudformation_stack_integration.py
+++ b/tests/test_cloudformation/test_cloudformation_stack_integration.py
@@ -1846,29 +1846,14 @@ def test_datapipeline():
         data_pipelines['pipelineIdList'][0]['id'])
 
 
-def _process_lamda(pfunc):
-    import io
-    import zipfile
-    zip_output = io.BytesIO()
-    zip_file = zipfile.ZipFile(zip_output, 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
-    zip_file.writestr('lambda_function.zip', pfunc)
-    zip_file.close()
-    zip_output.seek(0)
-    return zip_output.read()
-
-
-def get_test_zip_file1():
-    pfunc = """
-def lambda_handler(event, context):
-    return (event, context)
-"""
-    return _process_lamda(pfunc)
-
-
 @mock_cloudformation
 @mock_lambda
 def test_lambda_function():
     # switch this to python as backend lambda only supports python execution.
+    lambda_code = """
+def lambda_handler(event, context):
+    return (event, context)
+"""
     template = {
         "AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09",
         "Resources": {
@@ -1876,7 +1861,8 @@ def test_lambda_function():
                 "Type": "AWS::Lambda::Function",
                 "Properties": {
                     "Code": {
-                        "ZipFile": base64.b64encode(get_test_zip_file1()).decode('utf-8')
+                        # CloudFormation expects a string as ZipFile, not a ZIP file base64-encoded
+                        "ZipFile": {"Fn::Join": ["\n", lambda_code.splitlines()]}
                     },
                     "Handler": "lambda_function.handler",
                     "Description": "Test function",