Monkey Cupcakes

Tonight we were having a special snack in our children's class at church so I had to come up with an allergy-friendly version for my daughter. The theme was monkeys and the rest of the class was having cupcakes/cake, so naturally I chose to make my girl a monkey cupcake. It was actually fun and turned out pretty good, so I thought I'd share it with you. {Just don't pay too much attention to my lack of artistic ability in the cupcake decorating!}

Use your favorite cupcake recipe. I used a boxed yellow cake mix from Duncan Hines because it contains no milk or nuts and I substitute the 2 eggs with Ener-G Egg Replacer.

Buy or make your favorite chocolate frosting. I used Pillsbury Milk Chocolate which actually has no milk in it....go figure. Always check the label, don't take my word for it.

After you bake and frost your cupcakes, get out 3 solid color cookies that are allergy-friendly. I used graham crackers because that is all I had on hand. Round cookies are ready for use, but if you are using graham crackers, carve out two small half circles and one larger circle to use for ears and the nose/mouth area. See pic.

Next, use white frosting or mini marshmallows to make the whites of the eyes. Then, add a dark pupil on each side. {I used tiny hot chocolate style marshmallows because that's all I had on hand.} You can make the nose and mouth by piping chocolate frosting accordingly or by melting chocolate chips like I did and using a toothpick to draw it on. I didn't have much time, so I went the easy route.

I'm sure you could do a better job, so if you make these, post them on our facebook wall here. I'd love to see your version!