Llama Cupcakes for Llama Day

Torque & Me / Photo By Alan Kaplan

Although I am fortunate to be friends with said Llama Whisperer and can visit the farm pretty much on a whim, once a year this generous person opens up his property to the public for Open Barn Day.

Parents and Kids come from several surrounding counties to eat free ice cream, tour the barn and interact with prizewinning llamas.

Some years there is a Llama naming contest. The winner gets to name the latest addition to the herd. There were over 260 visitors last Sunday and I was honored to be a volunteer this year at Open Barn Day.

My friend Wendy (who first introduced me to and lives across the street from said Llama Whisperer) worked the information table.

I gave out cupcakes.

Even the press came out for the day.

Some Llama facts:

• When approaching a Llama, never stick out your hand. They are extremely skittish and will bolt. Slowly walk toward them, stop before you get too close and offer the top of your head. Let them sniff the top of your hair until they get used to you.

• Llamas hum and respond to humming. Softly hum and they will respond.

• Llamas do not spit at people unless severely provoked. Mostly they spit at each other when severely provoking each other.

• A baby llama is called a cria.

• A female llama can breed again three weeks after delivery.

For the recipes I went straight up Magnolia Bakery using both the vanilla and chocolate versions of cupcakes and buttercreams.

For the llama toppers I used a circus peanut candy and covered it with homemade marshmallow fondant making two batches one vanilla, one chocolate.