Monkey Cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of 3 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, then coat the paper and sides of pans with butter and flour, or a nonstick spray.

Whisk cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in a large bowl until blended.

Beat in eggs one at a time, then bananas, sour cream, and vanilla.

Beat in dry ingredients in two additions just until combined.

Divide batter among three pans; you’ll want approximately 5 cups of batter per pan.

Bake cake until a tester inserted into the center of each layer comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Cool each layer in its pan for 15 minutes before flipping out onto a rack to cool the rest of the way.

For frosting, whirl all the frosting ingredients except the melted chocolate in a food processor until smooth.

Set aside about 1 cup of the white frosting for the lighter areas, eyes, nose, and mouth, then add the chocolate to finish making the fudge frosting, and whirl it until light and smooth.

To the lighter frosting, add a small spoonful of the chocolate frosting and a drop or two of yellow food coloring for tinting, and set this aside in a small bowl.

Firm up one of your cake layers in the freezer; this will make carving shapes from it much easier.

Once firm, cut one or two 4 1/2-inch diameter round monkey 'heads' from it, being sure to leave little bumps on either side for the ears.

Cut two additional small circles from the cake scraps that remain, and cut them each in half, creating two half-moon shapes. These will become the ears of your larger cake.

Place one of your large, untouched cake rounds on your serving platter.

Pin a half-circle 'ear' to each side of the cake with a toothpick.

Level the cake with a long serrated knife if needed.

Top the layer with chocolate frosting.

Put the second layer on top, and attach its ears with two additional toothpicks.

Outline the shape of your monkey face on top with your lighter colored frosting.

Fill the shape in generously with the light frosting.

Coat the remainder of the cake and sides with a thin layer of dark chocolate frosting as a crumb coat.

Refrigerate the cake so that the frosting firms up a bit.

Generously frost the dark chocolate areas with a second coat of fudge frosting.

Touch up the lighter area if needed with additional frosting.

Use a piping bag with a small round tip to make the eyes, nose, and mouth on the monkey.

Remove the waxed paper scraps when finished.