Hi, I found a birthday cake in the gallery that my daughter just loves, but I am unsure of how to make it. I know it needs the Betty Crocker dome cake pan, so i bought the set, but I am really at a lost for the rest of the cake. The cake is a monkey's head complete with ears. I have tried to PM the person that originally made it, but have gotten no reply. How can I make the ears and have them stay on and how did she get the icing so perfect and smooth. Any help and/or suggestions would be appreciated

thank you,
Julie

this cake is bananas?????? Is that the cake you saw.....if so, it looks to me like she poured a ganache icing over the cake, then piped it the mouth, etc. with buttercream, i bet you could use a sugar cookie cut in half for the ears......maybe stick em in with toothpicks.......that's what it looks like to me!!

this is gonna sound weird...but I am a beginner and I do not know what ganache icing is or where to get it. Also, by piping, do you mean in a an icing bag with a tip on it? And will store bought icing do the trick or is buttercream special...how do i get it? you can tell this is my very first time ever making a special cake. I practiced last night and it came out pretty good i thought for a beginner. you'll be gald to know I DID use cookies for the ears! Thanks for your input and answers to my newbie questions

I don't think you can buy ganache you have to make it. But it's really easy to make.

Boil 1 1/2C Heavy cream turn off heat add 1lb semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate.( I just use a bag of chocoalte chips. Let set while chocolate melts some and then whisk them together just until mixed. Then let it cool until it is about the consistency of corn syrup and pour over your cake.

As for buttercream, you can buy it from a cake supply store, made by Wilton or other cake decorating companies. The regular canned icing is quite thin to pipe. And yes piping means in an icing bag with a tip.

Also buttercream is easy to make as well. You can find many buttercream recipes in the recipe section of this site. Just search for buttercream or icing.

yes Euphoria has got it........if you don't have tips........you can easily stick the buttercream frosting in a ziploc sandwich bag.....(I prefer the freezer bags, because I'm rough with everything and they won't burst open if you apply too much pressure) snip the end off and use that to pipe.....it doesn't appear that the person who made the cake used any kind of special tip, so that should work! As far as what icing is better......if you like store-bought icing I say go for it.....you don't need a lot of icing, so no real need to dirty all the dishes making it.

That cake is really cute! I think you would be fine using the store bought icing for this cake. You could probably use it for the head also...it just would not be as smooth. But once you got all the other details on the cake...it would still look really cute.

Good luck!