Monday, March 11, 2019

Llama Alpaca Birthday Cake

What do you do when your tween loves, Llamas/Alpacas, Laser Tag, and Sleepovers? Well you have a Laser Llama Pajama party for her 12th birthday, of course! My middle really wanted a llama/alpaca cake for her big day, because her new favorite things (above all of the things) are llamas and alpacas. I went searching the interwebs for some cake inspiration, and what resulted was the cutest darn llama face cake in the history of tweendom.

Is it a llama, or an alpaca?  We'll let you decide.

Here's a couple tips on how to make one for yourself. I am in no way a professional baker by the way, just a regular mom that tries to obtain her kid's wishes through baked goods. You will need:

Round cake baked with 2 (or more layers)
Top (roundish) part of cake trimmed off (save that part for the raised llama nose)
Frosting in white and whatever other color you want to make your llama
A few easy gel frostings with easy tips in black and pink for the facial features
The "grass tip" or Wilton tip (#233)
Pale Laffy Taffy, or vanilla Tootsie rolls for the ears

First, bake a two layer cake and stack the two layers. (Sometimes I will bake the cake the day before, let it cool, wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze until the following day when I'm ready to frost. Frozen cake is sometimes easier to frost with less of a crumb coat needed).

We used two 8-inch round cakes and layered them with strawberry jelly between the layers
When you pull the cake out of the oven, there is usually a "domed" up section in the middle of the pan. Use your knife to level off the top of the cake to make it flat, but take the "domed" top and cut out a small round circle to be the nose of your llama (this will make it looked raised and three dimensional).  Place this little extra disc in the center of the cake for a visual on future placement.

Use the cut off top of the cake when you even it out to make an elevated llama nose
Frost top of your cake with white frosting.  Half of the llama's face will be white, with a "furry" blue layer around the frame of the face.


Place white frosting on the top of the cake.
Take your little extra dome piece and frost that while on a separate plate.

It's messy to frost the sides, but then pick the whole thing up with a fork or large spoon.
Move the domed "nose" to the center of the cake and using the grass tip (Wilton #233) start pipping little fur tufts all over the cake, being sure to leave an almost heart shaped white spot in the middle for the eyes, nose and mouth.


Squeeze near the cake and pull up quickly to make little sections of "grass" or "fur" everywhere.
My original intention was to try and make the fluffy fur all over the cake, however, when I got close to the sides, I realized that the frosting was falling over too much (thanks to gravity) and so I opted last minute to use the blue frosting and frost around the sides. 


Smooth sides and fluffy bottom
You can totally do the smooth sides in aqua right after you put the white frosting at the top near the beggning. I was sort of flying by the seat of my pants.  I went back after the sides were on and put extra "grass" at the top  and then went around the base and added grass there too.

After that you want to add the face.  I used black pre-made frosting gel in a tube (with a decorative tip) to make the lines for the smile and the eyes with those most adorable eyelashes.

The nose is a "U" shape with two mouth lines to make a smile, and then a large dot for the eye and three eye-lashes for fun
 Next came the cute little rosy cheek dots.

I love the pop of color in the cheeks

Next (and rather last minute) I wanted to add ears. We had a pineapple Laffy Taffy, but you could also use a vanilla Tootsie roll. You can either roll it around in a clean warm hand until you can shape it into a tear drop shape, or some people will microwave the candy for a few seconds to get it warm and pliable. 


Cute, edible ears

I sort of pinched the bottoms of the circles or teardrops to give it a more realistic look. I also put some extra frosting under where I wanted them to be to prop them up a bit.  Isn't this the cutest stinkin' thing you've ever seen?


Hello, I'm adorable

After that, there was nothing left to do, but party!


Bring on the party animals!
Happy 12th birthday Eva!


Light da candles every-ting all right!

They had the best time. We got a lot of OOOoohs and Aaahhhhs when her friends saw the cake.


Happy birthday to you....

So, if you have a llama lovin' tween in your life, a 4-H guru, need something for your Future Farmers of America party, or if you just want this cute face looking up at you at your next gathering, give this one a try. Let me know how it turns out!

Enjoy.









 
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