MONKEY CAKE

Source: parenting.com

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients:

• 1 (9-inch) round cake
• 2 chocolate-covered doughnuts
• ½ can (1 cup) vanilla frosting
• Red food coloring
• 1 can (16 oz) chocolate frosting
• ½ cup chocolate sprinkles
• 2 brown M&M's or black jelly beans
• 2 miniature York peppermint patties
• 1 chocolate Twizzler

What you'll need:

• A bread knife
• A serving platter
• 2 resealable sandwich-size plastic bags (Ziploc)
• Kitchen shears or scissors

Trimming the cakes:

1. Place the cake on a clean work surface. Using the bread knife, trim a 1 ½-inch triangle-shaped notch from opposite sides of the cake (see template). Discard scraps. Place the trimmed cake onto a serving platter.
2. Cut ½ inch from one side of each doughnut.

For the white, red, and pink frosting:

1. Spoon ¼ cup of the untinted vanilla frosting into a resealable plastic bag.
2. Add enough red food coloring to 2 Tbsp of the vanilla frosting to tint it red and spoon it into a separate resealable plastic bag.
3. Add a few drops of the red food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it a pale pink.

Frosting the cake:

1. Spread the chocolate frosting onto the top and sides of the cake, avoiding the lower half of the monkey's face.
2. Spread the pale-pink frosting into a kidney bean–shaped area over the monkey's mouth, chin, and cheeks, as pictured.
3. Press the chocolate sprinkles into the forehead, the top of the head, and the underside of the monkey's chin.

Assembling the cake:

1. Press the trimmed edges of the doughnuts onto the cake for the monkey's ears. Press the M&M's or the jelly beans into the center of the cake to make the monkey's nostrils.
2. Snip a very small corner from each bag of frosting. Pipe a red frosting line onto the pink part of the cake for the monkey's smile.
3. Pipe 2 white circles onto the top of the cake for the monkey's eyes and press the peppermint candies into them. Add a dab of white frosting for the sparkle in each eye, as pictured.
4. Snip the chocolate Twizzler into thin 2-inch strands with kitchen shears or clean scissors and insert them into the top of the cake for the monkey's hair.

Cake Anatomy:

Cake Cutout: