Denise Tiny Little Bakery: Cheeky Monkey Cake

oh what glee...

it’s the weekends & we are free...

from the workaholic tree!

instead of a baking spree,

5 and a half hours was devoted to this monkey,

made with whole-grains..bananas & a lot of love from me!

it goes great with tea...

& it's oh-so yummy even Dino agree(s)!

Makes double 9" cake + 3 muffins (serves up to 24 slices)

Ingredients (Cake)
- 300g cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon cinammon
- 50g wholemeal flour
- 50g instant oats
- 225g unsalted butter, softened
- 200g white sugar
- 160g packed brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 4 large bananas (520g), mashed
- 6 tablespoons low-fat yogurt (i used strawberry flavoured as that was the only one on hand)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Ingredients (Frosting)
- 540g icing sugar, sifting not needed
- 340g unsalted butter, softened
- 6 tablespoons whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 - 2 teaspooons rum essence
- 140g chocolate, melted (I used 72% dark chocolate)
- 1 tablespoon cocoa

Methods (Cake)
1. Line the base of two 9" round pan (or one if that's all you've got), grease the sides with butter & cover it with flour so there are flour covering the sides (this gives your cake the non-stick effect and it can be removed easily). Dust off excess flour.
2. Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinammon into a bowl.
4. Stir in oats & wholemeal flour.
5. Cream the butter & sugars until light & fluffy before adding one egg at a time and cream until smooth.
6. Stir in mashed banana, yogurt and vanilla essence.
7. Divide the batters between the 3 muffin tins first then the other two 9" tins.
8. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes for the 9" and 15 - 20 minutes for the muffins until a skewer comes out clean.
9. Cool for 15 minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire rack.

Methods (Frosting)
1. Beat everything together until smooth except for the melted chocolate and cocoa.
2. Set aside 3/4 cup of this white frosting (this is for the monkey face).
3. Pour the melted chocolate and cocoa into the remaining frosting and beat till smooth for a brown frosting.

The Assembly
1. Take 2 baked muffins and slice into half (top down), you'll get 4 monkey ears.
2. Base: Using 2 toothpicks, stick 1 ear at the side of the monkey head. Repeat for the other ear.
3. Using a thin coat of brown frosting to coat this base --> Freeze for 10 minutes to "seal the crumbs".
4. Remove from freezer and continue frosting with the brown frost.
5. Top: Using 2 toothpicks, stick 1 ear at the side of the monkey head. Repeat for the other ear.
6. Pipe a face on this top layer using the white frosting:

7. Place this top layer over the base.
8. Using a thin coat of brown frosting, coat this top layer --> Freeze the entire cake for 10 minutes to "seal the crumbs".
8. Remove from freezer and continue frosting with the brown frost until the entire cake is covered.
9. Pipe the eyes and nose for the monkey using the brown frosting and a tiny nozzle.
10. Using the remaining white and brown frosting, draw a face for the last muffin (this is your smash cake):

smash cake

How was it?

The cake itself tastes so good, slightly gritty (i love gritty cakes) from the wholemeal flour and oats, not too sweet (i did reduce the sugar by 40g from the original recipe by Smitten Kitchen)..the taste & aroma of the bananas were absolutely lovely. Texture was great, cakes were baked without cracks (well done, me, heh). The frosting ~~is mm-hmm, thank you rum essence.~~ is way too sweet & the rum taste was undetectable after refrigeration, boo!

Better it up!

TOO MUCH frosting, I had more than 1/2 of the portion left. Reduce the frosting recipe by 2x or keep the frosting for cupcakes or....another monkey cake, ha. Add cocoa powder to the frosting or use this chocolate ganache recipe. Serve this cake in really thin slices to enjoy it at its best, we had such a huge portion that the overwhelming sweetness from the icing was not the best dessert experience !