Animals

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I made this chocolate and beetroot brownie monkey cake for JJ’s zoo animal themed second birthday party.

Monkey birthday cake

We used the same monkey face design that we used for the monkey masks. I used this Chocolate & Beetroot Brownie recipe from Vegie Smugglers, except that I used a round spring-form cake pan instead of a rectangular one.

(A non-pro tip: make sure to measure out the walnuts while they are still whole. If you measure out after they are already chopped, then the consequent larger quantity makes the walnut flavour too overpowering – something I luckily discovered on my test run the week prior, and was able to rectify for the ‘real’ cake….)

monkey cake

To make the beige / light brown icing, I mixed up icing sugar mixture, water, a touch of cocoa and one tiny drop of yellow food colouring (that stuff goes a long way!). I spread the icing to colour the whole cake, and then covered up the middle section with a piece of baking paper that I’d cut to size. I liberally applied chocolate sprinkles to the outside, uncovered parts of the face, patting down the sprinkles so they stuck to the icing. I then removed the baking paper, and added more icing to the middle section, bringing it up to be level with the chocolate sprinkles, and fixing up any areas where the sprinkles had crept in as I went.

I then left the cake out on the bench overnight for the icing to set. (I covered it with a box to keep our curious cat at bay). The next morning the icing was nice and hard, and the monkey face outline was still prominent. Yay! I then cut a third off two wagon wheels (a type of Australian chocolate biscuit) and put them on each side for ears.

Then I delegated to my father the drawing of the rest of the facial details with a tube of Rich Chocolate Writing Fudge.  (Thanks for stepping up on that one Dad!)

Chocolate & beetroot brownie monkey cake

So what do you think? I reckon it turned out OK! I know the flavour is a little unusual for a 2nd birthday cake – it was intended mostly for the adults to eat. But I figured that some of the kids would try it too, and if they liked it, then great! If not, there were plenty of other cupcake options with milder flavours. I only served little portions, about 4cm cubed, and you know what? Almost all the kids scoffed it down. Goes to show that you shouldn’t underestimate what kids will and won’t eat…

If you’re planning a zoo animal themed party, you might also like these zoo animal face masks and Easy zoo animal cupcake toppers.

Zoo Animal Face Masks

Easy zoo animal cupcake toppers

And here’s the photo that we used as the background for JJ’s party invitations on. Cute, no?

Riding the baby rhino

Or if it’s cakes you’re after, here’s a few other ones I’ve made – the ‘1’ cake, a ‘floral’ cake, and some professional-ish looking cupcakes.

Dotty Spotty One (1) Cake

Floral cake

Cupcake decorating class

 

Yum!

xx

Danya

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Zoo animal face masks

Sticking with the Easy zoo animal cupcake toppers, I also made these 9 x animal masks for JJ’s birthday party. They took me 2 nights in front of the telly to make – about 2 hours all up I reckon…

I printed off 3 copies each of the lion, tiger and monkey templates from this website. I painted each one and left them to dry. Then the next night I retraced over the black lines with a thick permanent marker, UHT glued each mask to some card stock, and then cut out the face and the eyes. To finish, I masking-taped a paddle pop stick (aka craft stick) to the back. And voila, masks are done!

(The paddle pop sticks make it a lot easier for a young toddler to play with. But if you had an older toddler / preschooler, you might want to add elastic to the masks instead.)

On the day of JJ’s birthday party, it was such a lovely sunny day, that the kids were having playing mostly outside and the masks didn’t get used a whole lot. But we’ve played with them plenty of times at home since. It accidentally worked really well that we have 3 copies of each mask, because then there is one for Mummy, Daddy & JJ to role play with. She likes to hold them up and roar for the lion and tiger ones, and ooh ooh for the monkey ones. It’s been 2 months since, and as you can see, they’ve held up quite well…

And if you’re holding a zoo animal themed party, you might want to check out my Chocolate & Beetroot Brownie Monkey Cake and Easy zoo animal cupcake toppers.

Chocolate and beetroot brownie monkey cake

Easy zoo animal cupcake toppers

Or, if it’s masks you’re after, I’ve also made some Space themed ones – here is how to make Sun and Saturn face masks.

Saturn and sun face masks

xx
Danya

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These cupcake toppers are so easy to make! I made a batch of about 50 or so in about an hour. We made zoo animal themed ones, but you could easily adapt to suit any theme.

Easy zoo animal cupcake toppers - can be customised to suit any theme
I bought two sticker books from the local discount shop, but as each book had 180 stickers (enough for 90 toppers), one would have been plenty. They cost me $2 each. I already had the rest of the supplies, so all up this project cost me $4!

Supplies Needed

A book (or two) of little stickers to match your theme
Regular paper
Glue Stick
Toothpicks
Regular scissors
Pattern-edged scissors

Pattern Edged Scissors

How To?

Grab a few sheets of paper – I used normal printer paper, or you could use coloured paper if you prefer. Cut the paper using regular scissors into little rectangles about 4cm high and 8cm wide. Glue one side, put a toothpick in the middle and fold the paper in half over the toothpick, effectively gluing the two halves together.

Stick a sticker onto each side, centred by height, keeping as close to the toothpick as possible.

Then use the pattern-edged scissors to cut off the excess paper around the stickers. Choose pattern-edged scissors with a small pattern – I used the stamp pattern ones, but the mini pinking or mini scallop pattern ones would work just as well.

And voila!  Homemade, zoo animal themed cupcake toppers!


They turned out quite well, especially considering how little time, effort, cost and resources were involved.

And if you are wondering what the little treats on the cupcake stand are? The top layer are grandma-homemade cupcakes (thanks Mum!). The second layer are egg-free cupcakes (to cater for some of JJ’s friends with egg allergies). They were so creamy! I’ll see if I can find the recipe to share with you… The third layer are wholemeal banana and Nutella (hazelnut spread) scrolls. I based them on this recipe, but used wholemeal (wholewheat) flour, added banana and deleted the crushed hazelnuts. They weren’t the prettiest, but they were yummy, and kind of healthy. (I had to sneak wholegrains in somewhere).

These were served at my daughter JJ’s second birthday party, along with these Zoo Animal Face Masks, and Chocolate & Beetroot Brownie Monkey Cake. It was zoo-ilicious and animal-tastic!

Zoo Animal Face Masks

Chocolate and beetroot brownie monkey cake

xx

Danya


Are you new here? If you’ve just found my blog, be sure to subscribe via Email or RSS Feed, or to “like” the Danya Banya Blog Facebook page, so that you’ll get all my tips and rants on parenting babies and toddlers, sewing, crafting, wholesome cooking, photography and lots more!

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