Monkey Cake and Cupcakes

(originally made 5/2011)

At Christmas, Jake kept asking my Dad what he wanted for presents, and he jokingly threw out "A MONKEY!"    Jake ended up getting him a sock monkey, and since then, everything monkey that he sees must be for Papa.     When I asked for suggestions for Papa's bday cake, Jake rolled his eyes and said, a monkey? what else?

Found lots of great ideas on the web.   It was going to be ugly hot here yesterday so I got up at 5am and made the cupcakes from a cake mix and then frosted them with canned frosting.    The faces are made but carefully sawing off the top 1/3 of a Nilla Wafer, then adding 2 dots of gel coloring for the nostrils and a red line of gel coloring for the mouth.    Ears are the 1/3 of the wafers you removed earlier, and the eyes are dots of gel coloring or you could use Chocolate chips.  
Jake loved them, and so did Papa  :)

 




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  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
  1              stick  butter -- unsalted
  1 1/4            cup  semisweet chocolate chips
  1                cup  all-purpose flour
  1 …
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