An attempt to make a monkey cake

Today was my niece's 4th birthday party and I volunteered to make the cake.  You see I love baking and I would love to learn to decorate cakes (its on my to do list, oh yeah that list that we all have). 

Ms M is a typical 4yr old girl, obsessesed with PINK!  And so of course her cake had to be pink.  Now this would have been far more elegant with fondant, but I've never used fondant before and had no time to practice (my volunteering was only accepted on Monday, they were going to buy a cake).  So I went with buttercream frosting.  And of course, when I went to find my icing pipers the kids had stolen them and they are in the nether regions of the house, that place where socks end up for months.  So I had to opt for a plastic bag.  Plus I only had 3 hours sleep (spent the night celebrating a friend returning to the States).

But overall I am happy, and everyone said it tasted great (it was only the second time I have ever baked a chocolate cake, I usually always make banana cake).  Voila.