Monkey Muffins

I saw these monkeys on the cover of Taste of Home at the store today, but I find "1 package chocolate cake mix" less than inspiring. (Translation: I have never bought cake mix, and I have no plans to change that. Cakes are easy to make!)

First I made my peanut butter banana muffins (that works out to 1 cup of mashed banana, and I left out chocolate chips this time). After all, what says "monkey" like banana?

I put a thin layer of chocolate frosting, left over from the torch cupcakes for Karston's birthday, on the muffins. Banana goes well with so many other flavors! Like honey and peanut butter (in the muffins) and chocolate (in the frosting)! I put an extra swizzle blob at the top for the monkey's hair.

I carefully cut a Nutter Butter in half for the ears. Then I discovered that half a Nutter Butter is still too heavy (so I recommend mini vanilla wafers for a low-maintenance alternative). My recovery plan was to use a toothpick, but it split the Nutter Butter in half the first time. So the way that works is to hold the Nutter Butter half very tightly while inserting the toothpick. I couldn't get the toothpick in as far, but that doesn't seem to matter. Using the toothpicks, I was able to position those monkey ears at a jaunty angle!

I cut a vanilla wafer in half for the mouth, and added a big smile with red cookie icing in a squeezie bag. For the eyes, I used white M&M's with a dot of blue cookie icing in another squeezie. I discovered that bigger blue circles look friendlier, so that gives me even more room for slop in my fledgling decorating skills. All of a sudden, I had a cute monkey cupcake!

I've been stressed for two weeks about what to pack Karston for lunch once school starts. He eats so little already, with so little interest, that the collision with 30 minutes for lunch could add up to one empty Karston tummy, and that leads to poor behavior and maternal stress trying to avoid that situation. So one of my plans was to make his food so attractive, he'd be more interested in it, and hopefully eat it. Well, this afternoon, Karston took one look at the first monkey I made, and he ate it. He ate all but the bottom half of the muffin because he wanted another layer of frosting there. Cale saw Karston eating a monkey muffin, and then he had to have one. I couldn't make it fast enough for him, but I wasn't allowed to cut corners and leave off part of the face decorations. Cale kept pointing out what I hadn't done when I asked if he wanted to eat it now in response to his endless Monkey Muffin! calls. After making one of these in an insane hurry for Cale, I feel comfortable saying this is a very easy decoration task. I can do it. Generally when I try artful decoration, we end up talking about how good it tastes: I can cook, but I usually can't decorate.

Hopefully the attraction of a cute monkey muffin for dessert will encourage Karston to eat his lunch tomorrow!