I made the mistake of turning my friend loose on CC to find a design for her son's first bday cake. She came back with this lovely design from cakemom24

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1290321

It serves way too many people, and quite possibly beyond my skill level. If I tried to reduce the servings by doing the monkey only (all cake), what shapes and pans would you recommend using?

Would you put a dowl through the whole thing and into the cake board?

I always have problems posting links, hopefully this will work

OK, someone please tell me when I push the URL button, and where the [URL] thingy should appear. It's still not right, but every time I previewed and went back, my whole email disappeared!!!

Delete duplicate post.

Ok for your url thing it should be like this [url] [/url] your leaving the/ out of the end url.
Ok for cake business how many people does it have to serve? I highly recommend this site for a great tutorial for a 3D monkey cake. http://www.cakedalaska.com/Caked_Alaska/Monkey_see.html
As for doweling YES you need to support a 3D cake!

Wow, I had the weirdest sense of deja vu with the URL thing. But it wasn't something to do with Cake Central, so I can't figure out what the heck it made me think of Thank you for the help with that! I will remember now, I hope.

OK, back to the cake business...thanks for the link. I think that's somewhat how I pictured it. I was thinking to use my Wondermold pan for the body shape. I can see that Deanna came up with the same basic shape, but more sculpting. Then both halves of my ball pan for the head? She mentioned a ball pan, but not specific as to where it ended up.

I wouldn't have the extra cake for the legs and arms. Have to decide to bake/carve from something else, or just use fondant or cover foam with fondant.

As far as dowels...dowel through the middle going all the way up, cake board halfway up the wondermold and again beneath the head? I'm not sure where I'd put extra dowels or boba straws with the Wondermold pan. Not sure how I'd have any cake left

Trying to serve 20 people.

Anyone?

I figured out the deja vu. It was from learning how to post spoilers on IMDB and have them covered until you roll over it I was missing the same thing on there, the / at the end.

Anyone have more ideas for me on my monkey??

Deanna only uses two eight inch rounds and very little carving, just carve the rounds to get the legs and arms. As for the ball pan she used that for the head. PM or email Deanna she is more than willing to help you, she answered questions for me and I havent even started! I am thinking about using RKT for the head instead of cake, I just have this feeling of driving 3 miles with the cake in the car the head would be rolling around the back when I got there. You want to support anything over 3" high! Good Luck!

You're doing one now? Good luck. I talked my friend into a simpler design that I think is more appropriate to the time I have and my skill level.

The monkey will just have to wait.

Thanks for all of your help! I could only even 'entertain' the idea of doing it at all, because of all the help from CC.

I have the cakes baked but havent started the carving them! I have to make the icing still. I have the cakes in my freezer since this is just a trial run for Feb. Sorry to hear you aren't doing the monkey cake, if you set your mind to it you can do it. And just remember the more you the better you get!

Thanks for the monkey sculptu link SILVERCAT. I am about to do my first sculpture but it is of Iggle Piggle from In the Night Garden. I was going to do a straightforward laying down in daisy strewn grass character but might try a sitting up posture. When you use RKT, I@ve never used them do you just mold them and cover in sugarpaste - how do you attach them to the cake - do you dowell? I have never heard of them being used in my country but they seem to be commonly used on CC

From what I have heard about other people using the RKT for sculpting is they crush the RK up more so they get a smoother finish. I haven't done it this way yet but will in the next week or so. Use some melted chocolate to attach the pieces together and make sure you support everything higher than 3". If you are going to use RKT for the head support in the under part of that, the cake area. Here is a cute cake I found when I googled "Iggle Piggle" had to see what Iggle Piggel was. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2332751753_c760e959c4.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/sarahjj/2332751753/&usg=__iH9tyL7CXeIatkLRxUEF41Gcfj4=&h=500&w=375&sz=122&hl=en&start=36&um=1&tbnid=7mexKNs1CNiNsM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3DIggle%2BPiggle%2Bcake%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN Good Luck hope this helps.

Silvercat, you're only driving THREE MILES with your monkey cake? I drove mine something like 20 miles. Having support under the head, plus the modeling chocolate (or fondant, if you go that route) helps give it stability.

Bizatchgirl, if you decide to make a monkey cake but want to use your Wonder Mold pan instead of the rounds like I did, I'd also bake a 6" or 8" square and cut that up for the limbs. Or Twinkies, if you wanted a shortcut.

Deanna

The little girl I made my monkey for... Well, I think she must have the same off-kilter sense of humor as I do. You mentioning monkey heads rolling around reminded me that her dad emailed me pictures of the head of the monkey cake on a plate in their fridge. They ate the body and saved the head, and she took the head to school with her the following Monday. That grinning monkey head in the fridge was just hilarious to me.

I cannot wait to see your monkey. I know it's going to be awesome!

Deanna

OMG, HAHHAHA! I can just picture the monkey's head on a plate in the fridge! Could you imagine if guest showed up and went in the fridge and saw that!?

When I made Boots from Dora the Explorer I got some directions for making it from a lady on here. I can email them to you if you like. But what I did is made the head use the Wilton ball pan. Then I used a bread pan to make the body. I carved it to make it more pointed at the top so it was sort of like a triangled shape. Then used modeling chocolate to do the legs, arms, tail, and other accents. Ive also did the same came for someone using the RCT for the body. You use a little less butter than what the normal recipe calls for. Then you have to press it together as it cools and sometimes throwing it in the fridge makes it easier. And then you can cover it with either chocolate or BC. Use a dowel threw the middle and also I screwer the arms,legs, ears and attach with a little BC or RI.
Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the help. Deanna, thanks so much for popping on here and giving me advice. I didn't realize you were a CCer when they posted the link, so I didn't think about asking you directly!

OK, I found this monkey cake in the gallery. My friend agreed to let me try this one, so I don't end up with some crazy leaning, headless mutant monkey.

I saved it to my HD to send it to my work email. Now I realize I didn't save it with the name of the creator, like I usually do. And I can't find it in the gallery again!

Does anyone know this monkey? I would like to PM for some advice on cake pan sizes.

Bizatchgirl, that's really cute! No rolling heads with that one.

Deanna

Silvercat, here's a giggle for tonight........

Deanna

Funny refrigerated monkey head. I can't get over how clean the inside of their refrigerator is. Mine is jam packed full of everything and anything!

Not my cake, Deanna. I'm hoping I can do it justice. Since I went back through the 24 pages of pics that came up for monkey, and I can't find it again, I'm just going to play it by ear.

Making 1 small oval, which I hope to shape arms and legs from. Making 2 small 6 in. 1 for head and 1 for feet, if they bake up high and level. Otherwise, may need 2 for head. 1 8 in for body. If don't get enough scrap somewhere for feet, may just make them flat or fondant over foam.

Still hope I can find the original creator of the monkey so I can give credit where credit is due when I post my version.

Bumping myself.

Looked through all monkey pics that come up in the gallery when I search and still can't find this monkey's owner.

Deanna,
Thats was just TOO funny to see first thing in the morning! I started laughing and my kids asked why?

Bizatchgirl,
Are you sure you found it on here if you went through 24 pages adn still didn't find it? Did you google it maybe and found it that way? I think your idea is just right for doing the new one. And sorry I didnt mention Deanna was a CCer. Good Luck and make sure you post a pic when you finish!

I am off to make icing for my trial monkey cake!

Bizatchgirl, I hope you find who made that cake (it really is adorable) and I can't wait to see the pics of yours when you get it done!

Deanna

Thanks for all of your help. I could swear I got it on CC, but who knows. I've now been looking at monkeys for days and I'm probably just confused. Because the only other explanation would be that monkey isn't in the title, and that's why it doesn't come up when I search. But then, how did I find it in the first place?

So, will just say my inspiration came from someone, somewhere on the web

I just googled "monkey cakes" and it was o the first page. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.londoncake.com/images/002754%2520Monkey%2520Novelty%2520Bithday%2520Cake.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.londoncake.com/General%2520Page%25201.htm&usg=__dRKL94FNX7BXEG6OA-NGZVS6Cf0=&h=800&w=829&sz=456&hl=en&start=12&sig2=IfDt2tZ-4v8U1mqb_kdqxQ&um=1&tbnid=5JV_cz4cN0KTuM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=144&ei=Uvw_SeKVH5CksQPPhcm0Cg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmonkey%2Bcakes%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS297%26sa%3DN

Funny. The site itself doesn't look like anything I've seen but the monkey is definitely there.

Thank you for solving that mystery for me!!

Now I just have to figure out how to make him to serve 20 people. It really doesn't look like a lot of cake was used.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Because of everybody's wonderful advice I made a great monkey cake and mom was extremely pleased.

I chose to do chocolate buttercream instead of fondant, and used the grass tip to make fur. I ok'd it with mom first, but I still think she couldn't really picture what I was saying. She was shocked when she saw it! She said it was even better than she thought.

I'd like to do it again and work more on the feet, arms and hands. I kind of ran out of room on the board!!!

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1294547&done=1

Thanks for looking and thanks again for helping!![/u]

Great job done! Just remember the next one will be easier for you!

Deanna