When a friend at work asked me to bake for her son's first birthday I was honored. A first birthday? Wow, this is a memento occasion! Sure I said, what's the theme? Well she had to think on that and came back a few days later with a "monkey" theme. She said that they call him "chunky monkey" so that would be fitting. Then she supplied me with pictures she had downloaded. A cake, smash cake and cupcake toppers. I thought, "oh boy, this is a big order to fill". Not to mention the cookies I had always promised her I would donate for his first birthday. The cake - a ten inch round with a gum paste monkey on top surrounded by many, many gum paste bananas. The smash cake - a banana shaped cake, and the cupcake toppers - twenty-four little fondant monkey faces. What did I get myself into? Well I did say yes, so buckle down and get busy. My first task was to create a fondant monkey for the cake topper. To test my skills I first made one from modeling clay. I loved the outcome so then I proceeded to duplicate him in fondant. Again, I was pleased with the little monkey and decided I was done with that task.
Next, bake cookies and decide what cookie cutter to use. I have a monkey face but decided not to use it. Instead I opted for a circle cutter. Flood the cookies in green and add yellow polka dots (since these were two of the colors chosen for the party theme). Next, make monkey faces to go on top using the royal icing transfer method. I really loved the look of these.
Now the biggie .... The Cake. Really this was the easy part. Once I had it baked and leveled. To apply the icing and get it really smooth did not take as long as anticipated.
Then on to the gum paste bananas. This too was a really quick task. I just had to make very many of them to get the look I was going for. Once complete it was time to put it all together.
Then on to the smash cake. I took a ten inch round cake and cut the shape of a banana from it. Covered it in chocolate butter cream icing. Rolled out my yellow fondant and applied it to the banana shaped cake. This worked well and made a clean banana shaped cake.
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Smash Cake |
Last, the monkey face cupcake toppers. These were made of fondant dyed in two shades of brown. Then using an edible food marker I drew the eyes and mouths. Again, not difficult just time consuming.
Whew ... job complete! But I hear Drew had a wonderful 1st birthday and that he really enjoyed his smash cake. He ate the entire "banana" cake. That makes it all so well worth the work!
