1st Birthday Cake Recipes – Monkey Face Cake

Birthdays are always important whether you are celebrating for a child or an adult. But when it comes to your child’s 1st birthday cake recipes, adding your own personal touch will make it even more special and make you feel good inside. Here is a ‘monkey face’ 1st birthday chocolate cake recipe, which is guaranteed to put a smile on your young one’s face.

To create this masterpiece you will require a basic 9-inch sponge cake.

Ingredients:

•  1/3 cup corn flour
•  1/3 cup plain flour
•  1/3 cup self-raising flour
•  4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
•  4 eggs at room temperature
•  2/3 cup castor sugar
•  1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C.
2.  Grease a 9-inch cake pan and set aside.
3.  Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
4.  Beat the egg whites using an electric blender until soft peaks are formed.
5.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar starts to dissolve.
6.  Add the peaky egg whites and beat the mixture some more. The trick behind the fluffiness of sponge cake is to incorporate as much air as possible.
7.  Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
8.  Sift the corn flour, plain flour and self-raising flour in a bowl.
9.  Add the flour mix and cocoa powder to the egg mix and fold the mix.
10.  Pour the batter in the cake pan.
11.  Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes.
12.  Remove from the oven and cool the cake on a wire rack.

For preparing the monkey face you will need:

•  2 chocolate covered doughnuts
•  1 cup vanilla frosting
•  1/2 cup chocolate sprinklers
•  2 1/2 cups chocolate frosting
•  2 brown M&Ms
•  2 Oreo cookies
•  2 teaspoons mixed fruit jam
•  1 chocolate Twizzlers
•  Piping bags

Assembling the cake:

1.  Place the cake on a clean surface and trim 1/2 inch from each side of the cake.
2.  Cut 1/2 inch from the doughnuts.
3.  Place the trimmed doughnuts on the sides of the cut portion of the cake for the monkey’s ears.
4.  Divide the vanilla frosting in 1/2. To one-half add a little bit of red food coloring to get a very pale pink color.
5.  Cover the top half of the cake with chocolate frosting.
6.  For the lower half use the pale pink frosting to make a kidney bean type shape for the mouth.
7.  Use the M&Ms to mark the nose of the monkey.
8.  Pipe the rest of the vanilla frosting in two white circles to mark the eyes. Place the Oreo cookies in the center of the white circles.
9.  Pipe the jam as the smiling mouth.
10.  Press the chocolate sprinklers on the forehead, top of the head and under the chin.
11.  Scrape the chocolate twizzler to make the hairs of the monkey.
12.  Let the cake cool in the fridge to allow the frosting to set.

Before assembling the cake you can slice it horizontally and apply some chocolate frosting in between the layers for a more chocolaty taste.