The Great Monkey Fondant Cake Adventure

Final Monkey Fondant Cake

Part 1

My monkey cake template

I’m a fondant cake novice, so I decided my second fondant cake would be for my nephew’s 2nd birthday. If it turned out inedible and unidentifiable, then a 2 year old can’t really yell at me. Well, he could, but no one would understand him.

He loves monkeys and it was between a monkey cake and Ming-Ming cake from Wonderpets (“gooooo Wonderpets – yeah!”). Although Ming-Ming is adorable, the monkey won.  So I started by making a template out of paper and some of my cake rounds. Yes, I know there’s suppose to be more than one ear and more than one foot, but you’ll have to use your imagination.  Initially I was going to do the ears, arms, etc in rice krispy treats, but it ended up just being the banana, #2, and the feet.  Everything else was cake. I highly recommend making a template. If you’re a bit anal like me, then you’ll make sure to make every piece while also making sure the size looks right.

I was apparently doing this template while I was drinking because if you look at the picture it has a #1 and not a #2 in his little hand.  Thankfully, I didn’t make that mistake on the actual cake.

Part 2

Next, I made my fondant.  I love the recipe for Marshmallow Fondant from Peggy’s Baking Corner and I made 2 batches. 1 chocolate and 1 regular.  I love this recipe because it’s forgiving & easy. Instead of reinventing the wheel & making this blog 8 pages long, please check her recipe out.  Also, for the chocolate, I used the same recipe and added 1 ounce of melted chocolate to the warm marshmallows and 1 T of high quality cocoa into the powdered sugar and mix.

Part 3

Two days before the party I made the yellow cakes. And doubled the batch.  The recipe below has been doubled and made 3 – 9″ rounds, 1 – 6″ round, and a bread pan (I ran out of pans.)

Yellow Cake Recipe

Original recipe from Wilton.com

All of the yellow cakes for the monkey cake

Ingredients:

• 6 cups sifted cake flour
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 3.5 cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cup butter or margarine
• 4 eggs
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups milk

Makes: Cake serves 24.

instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom of two 8-inch round cake pans and line with waxed paper or parchment paper. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Cream sugar and butter together until light. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating one minute. Spread batter evenly in prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Fill and frost as desired.

Part 4

Now onto the buttercream. When I make buttercream, I don’t mess around – I make a huge recipe and freeze the remaining. Epicurious has a great recipe that makes more buttercream icing than you should possibly need. If you need more icing then you may have a serious problem or may end up in a diabetic coma.  I’ve only modified this recipe to meet my tastes.

Buttercream Frosting

Decorator’s Buttercream Icing

ingredients

2 cups (1 pound or 454 gram) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (230 gram) vegetable shortening or hi-ratio shortening
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (don’t use the fake stuff)
3 lbs (1.36 kilograms) 10X confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp (4 1/2 fl ounces or 135 mililiter) water
3 Tbsp meringue powder (I bought this at JoAnn Fabric – made by Wilton)
1 tsp salt

1. Cream shortening and butter with an electric, handheld, or paddle-whip mixer. Add flavoring and salt. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time. Add meringue powder. (The mixture will appear dry.)

2. Add liquid of choice and beat until light and fluffy (approximately 5 to 8 minutes). Keep the bowl covered with a damp cloth or plastic wrap.

Storage: Store the icing in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.

Yield: 2 1/2 quarts (2.37 L)

Part 5

Monkey cake assembly

Now onto the assembly. I should’ve taken more pics of the assembly, but i was in the zone and totally spaced that portion. The body is 2 9″ rounds with buttercream and raspberry puree in between. Then I used my template and cut out his belly and rounded out the belly portion by shaving off cake. Next I placed the 6″ cake round at the top for the head.

Then I cut out the mouth portion from a 9″ round using my ‘mouth’ template U& placed it on top of the head. Since there are portions of the bottom of the oval that didn’t have support, I used the shavings from the ‘body’ to create support under the ‘mouth’ area.

Then I cut the ears out of the remaining of the 9″ round. Finally, I cut the arms out of the cake that was baked in my bread pan. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. This monkey-in-progress was then put into the refrigerator.

Part 6

Naked monkey cake starting to get some fondant clothes

I figured, we didn’t want a naked monkey so I started with his base chocolate fondant ‘skin.’

The fondant was in the fridge for a couple days, so I put it in the microwave for 10 seconds, twice. Then I brought it out and kneaded it on my plastic roll mat using cornstarch so it won’t stick. I did end up adding a little water while kneading it. After rolling it to about 1/8″ I cut the body shape out, smoothed it over the body and then cut the overhang with a paring knife. The body, arm, ears and head were all covered.

After I was done with the body, I had some white cornstarch dots on the chocolate. So I took a pastry brush and a tiny bit of water to brush away the dots. It did a pretty good job.

Part 7

Rice krispy treats to the rescue

Rice krispy treats to the rescue.

I made some traditional marshmallow rice krispy treats but made them with a bit less rice krispies to make it more pliable.  I don’t use a recipe, I just eyeball it, so here’s my general idea of a recipe.

5 cups Rice Krispies

1 bag small marshmallows

2 T butter

In a large bowl put 2 T butter in the bottom of a large bowl. Melt in the microwave. Dump all marshmallows into the warm butter and stir. Put back into the microwave for 30 seconds, then stir. Continue until almost melted and smooth. Take it out and stir until completely smooth.  Add all the rice krispies. Line a 9″ x 13″ pan with parchment paper and press the treats down into the pan. Now let cool.

After they’re cool, cut out the shapes you need and then add some more treats to form the shapes. It’s not shown in the pic, but I also made two balls for the hands to make it more stable.

Part 8

Almost done

Geez… you’d think I’d be done by now.  This kid better like this cake.

Now onto the white parts. The mouth, belly, belly button, inside of ears, background to eyes, and middle of the banana were all white. I covered all of them with an 1/8″ rolled out fondant.

And then colored some white fondant green and yellow.  The yellow I cut into strips and made the banana peels. With the green I covered the #2 & made eyeballs.

I attached all the fondant with just a paintbrush and water. The banana peels were rolled back and I brushed some water on the back side, so they wouldn’t move around.

I placed the banana on top of the left hand and made sure the top was supported by a bit of the ear. Then I placed the #2 onto the the top of the right hand and supported the top of it with the right ear. To add additional support, I put a ball of rice krispy under it.

And I’m spent.

The final product was a hit. They loved the look and taste. It was a win/win.

Plus my nephew sat beside me when I was finishing up the fondant and kept saying “Colin monkey cake” and “I touch”.  When I told him he couldn’t touch until tomorrow, he started telling me “no, no, Ishey” because I was touching it & then started laughing at me.  I guess I wasn’t suppose to touch it either. I’d like to know how to work that trick.

It took a great deal of time, but it was worth it.

Final Monkey Fondant Cake