FROM THE KITCHEN: milk chocolate frosting recipe

I found a picture of these monkey cupcakes on Pinterest, and of course, I had to make them for Liam’s birthday! Guests seemed to enjoy them at his party, so I thought I’d post details on how I made them. I used a butter recipe cake mix (and added in a little vanilla to the mix for good measure) and then made a variation of my mom's delicious homemade frosting: 

MILK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE FROSTING 

2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 can evaporated milk
3-4 cups powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency)
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk cocoa into melted butter. Add vanilla until blended. With an electric mixer, alternate mixing in evaporated milk and powdered sugar until you reach desired consistency/richness.

Then I cut Nilla Wafers in half for the ears, and I cut 1/3 off of the other Nilla Wafers for the nose/mouth part. I used miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips for the eyes, and Wilton’s cookie icing for the nose and mouth. I used black instead of red for the mouth to look more like George and less like a sock monkey like the ones I found online.

They were actually very easy, but the trick is to fully decorate each cupcake as you frost it because the decorations won’t stick if the frosting hardens. And they were so yummy, I ate my weight in them!