Monkey Birthday Cake Ideas
Every kid loves a monkey, so what better animal to have on your child's birthday cake? There are lots of different ways you can make a monkey-themed birthday cake, either using just the face or the whole monkey. The most popular ways are the scenery cake, the shaped cake, and the assembled cake.
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The Basics
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Since your theme is monkeys, why not start with a banana-flavored cake? Other popular choices are vanilla or chocolate. Depending on the strategy you use for making your cake, you can start with a store-bought cake, use a mix, or bake from scratch; your results will be impressive anyway.
The Scenery Cake
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One simple way to create a monkey-themed cake is to start with a standard rectangular or round cake, and ice it with a plain light icing; perhaps white, or a light blue to represent the sky. Use that as your blank canvas, and create a scene on the cake featuring monkeys climbing trees or eating bananas.
Soften fruit roll-ups or Tootsie Rolls in the microwave for a few seconds, or in your hands. Cut or shape them to create trees, leaves, grass, and the monkeys' bodies. Put bunches of banana-shaped candies on the trees, and in the monkeys' hands, or use brown M&Ms to represent coconuts.
Or, just draw your monkey on the cake with brown icing; trace a picture onto waxed paper and transfer it to your cake by poking around the outline with toothpicks to create your shape. Fill in the outline with frosting.
The Shaped Cake
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Some people buy a monkey mold to make their cake, but it's very easy to make a monkey face out of plain round cakes too.
Start with a round cake for the head, and cut out rounded triangles from each side of the face to make a stylized figure 8. Either use the part you trimmed off, bake two smaller cakes, or cut a second round cake in half to make the ears. Glue your ear shapes onto the head with icing, nestled into the spots on the side of the face that you trimmed off.
If you wish to make a complete monkey, use another round cake for the body, and another that you can cut into curved slices to be arms and a tail. Then decorate your monkey with dark chocolate icing, a lighter chocolate for the muzzle and belly, and an icing pen or dark gel icing for the eyes, nose, mouth and other details.
The Assembled Cake
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Another fun way to make your monkey cake is to start the same way as for the shaped cake, but use pre-made elements to put the details on your cake. Use chocolate donuts or cupcakes for the ears, M&Ms, chocolate cookies or peppermint patties for the eyes, M&Ms or jellybeans for the nostrils, chocolate Twizzlers for hair, and licorice whips for the mouth.
If you want to make just a monkey face, you can either have it lay down flat, like the shaped cake, or use a bowl-shaped cake to make the head sit upright. Instead of putting the face details on the top, you'll put them on the front, and make your cupcake ears stick out the side.
Whatever way you choose to make your monkey cake, be prepared to tell everyone at the party how you did it, because they'll definitely want to know!
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