Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Last night Jaja and I stayed up until midnight to make a birthday cake for my roommie who turns 28 this week. For the last four years, I have made her some form of a commemorative "G" cake in honor of the her name. The first year, it was a simple cut-out from a 9 X 13 pan. This year, I wanted something with a little je ne sais quoi, so the FBI agent in me figured out how to secretly procure her mother's phone number. When I asked G's mom what kind of cake G might like, to my surprise, she said, "You should bake her a monkey cake!"

Apparently G was very fond of the monkey character Zephir from the Babar elephant series. In fact, little stuffed Zephir still resides at her mom's house in Minneapolis. Judging from how quickly G's mom answered my question, I figured this must be her traditional birthday cake, but out of curiosity I asked when was the last time she made it for G.

"Oh I guess she was about six years old."


Perfect! Nothing like a bit of nostalgia to ring in a new birthday. I won't go into the details of how much butter, how many eggs, or how much buttercream frosting ended up in our bellies, but suffice it to say, making a monkey cake is a bit of monkey business. As late as it was last night, Jaja and I had a blast decorating what we both agreed was the best monkey cake we'd ever made.


Tonight, we will eat monkey!