One of the best tips for making monkey cupcakes is to think in terms of circles and contrasting browns. Aside from lengths of licorice or frosting for the lines of the mouth and an oval candy or two jelly beans to use for a nose, monkey faces to decorate cupcake tops can be made from different sizes of edible, circular foods. Cookies, candies and round dollops of frosting may be combined creatively. There are many fun techniques to choose from when making monkey cupcakes.
A quick and easy monkey face can be made with two larger cookies that will fit on a cupcake when overlapped. The cupcake should first be frosted before placing the cookies on top to create the face. Two round cookies should be attached on either side of the face for the monkey's ears. A small amount of the same frosting can be used to "glue" two round candies onto the first cookie to create the eyes on the monkey cupcakes. Two smaller candies should then be attached with frosting to the candy eyes to make pupils.
Once the eyes are in place, the second cookie which overlaps the first can be used for the mouth section. A great tip for creating an attractive contrasting color to that of the first cookie as well as the cupcake's frosting is to spread on a different color of brown-toned frosting onto the second cookie. If an oval candy nose and lengths of licorice are going to be used for the mouth lines on the monkey cupcakes, they should be lightly pressed into the second cookie before the frosting hardens. Otherwise, a cake decorating bag may be used to pipe an oval nose with a vertical line that centers onto a curving mouth to form a smile.
A totally different monkey look can be created by using an icing bag of frosting for drawing and filling in a large oval onto a cupcake frosted in a contrasting brown color. Once this oval shape is completed, a V-shaped widow's peak hairline should be piped onto the monkey cupcakes using a color of frosting darker or lighter than that of the main face. A cookie such as a ginger snap or even a raised top type of cookie may be placed opposite of the widow's peak to create the mouth section. Two black jelly beans placed vertically onto the cupcake with frosting just above the top edge of the mouth cookie can create nostrils.
Two chocolate covered coffee beans can be attached on the upper part of monkey cupcakes, under the widow's peak on either side, to form the eyes. To create a non-smiling mouth for the cupcakes, either black or red licorice can be placed horizontally in about the center of the lower cookie. Small cookies, either plain or chocolate-covered should be added onto each side of the oval face, somewhere close to the level of the monkey's nose, to complete the cupcakes.