I created this Homemade Monkey Jungle Cake for my wonderful granddaughter for her fourth birthday.
This is the first time I have attempted to make a novelty cake with fondant and it was a real labour of love.
I spent a month and many attempts to make the animals from fondant and had a lot of fun as well as making loads of mistakes. In the end they turned out fine. I also used sugar paste to make butterflies, leaves and flowers and used edible glitter to decorate.
I made three palm trees from sugar paste – with snakes wrapped around the trunk. I made three cakes from a basic chocolate sponge recipe – a 12 inch for the base, a 10 inch for the centre and a 6 inch for the top.
The bottom layer I covered with white fondant and attached Zebra stripes from black fondant. The middle layer was covered with a bright green fondant to indicate jungle and the top layer was covered in baby blue to indicate the sky at the top of the jungle.
First of all I covered the cake board with green fondant. I then dowelled and stacked the cakes. Then the fun began: The middle layer was decorated with monkeys and other animals eating bananas and climbing up the sides. I covered the join with butterflies, palm leaves, ferns and flowers and attached with sugar paste dipped in egg white to create a glue.
The top layer I decorated with a smiley sun and clouds and popped a Giraffe on the top holding a bunch of sugar paste and glittered balloons. Once the cake was decorated I decorated the cake board with palm trees, animals and Happy Birthday letters which I made from sugar paste.
I had the best fun in the world making this cake and would love another excuse to make another!
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