THE MONKEY CAKE

Seems like so long since I have blogged. It's not because I'm not cooking, I just seem to be so busy, and, of course in summer there is a lot of BBQ'ing being done.

When, last week when I received an E- Mail from my friend Joey saying she had found the perfect cake for her baby boy's 2nd birthday, I was slightly surprised when she asked if I had the correct sized cake tins for her to borrow. Why was I surprised? Well because I usually do the cakes for neighbours kids. However, I fully understand a mum wanting to make her child's own cake and I was willing to help if she wanted me but didn't want to take over the task. But on speaking to her it became clear that she would be happy for me to do the cake but hadn't wanted to ask as she knew I was busy. So make it I would. I am never too busy to make a cake especially a fun one one like this.

The cake was to be like a monkey!!! We had looked on the Internet for ideas and had come up with our favourite shaped cake, not however the preferred flavour. But that would be no problem I would just make my trusted old chocolate cake in place of the one featured.

The cake was to be baked in a pudding basin, a 3qrt (6pint) one. The first one I did came out way too flat, so I changed to a smaller 3 pint basin reduced my cooking time and this time it was a success.

Now to the fun bit, decorating. After my last attempt at a theme cake, the Trivia Cake, which I blogged, I was keen to redeem myself with the monkey. The picture looked simple enough, let me say at this point I was only producing a monkey head, not the whole body. So with a lot of chocolate frosting, a few toothpicks, to secure the ears, and with the addition on some yellow frosting I did manage to produce something looking remarkably like the picture.

I was so happy. Bobby, the birthday boy arrived to inspect my creation and to my complete delight he squealed the word "monkey" as soon as he saw it. My day was complete he had recognised the cake and now I could look forward to the party later in the day safe in the knowledge that Bobby was happy with his birthday cake. Later we would find out how it tasted but for now I was happy with the way it looked.







The party was lots of fun and the cake went down a treat.