Butterfly Cupcakes to know and share

Cup cakes can be the most delightful and intricate little treat. Here I am going to show you one of my favourites which is so easy and very impressive. The Butterfly Cake is elegant, beautiful and delicious, making it perfect for munching alone or for celebrating your friends birthday. The butterfly cake is, however, not to be under estimated. This cake is a statement, it will catch the attention of the peckish eater, look them in the eye and dare them to take a bite. This is a dilemma of course for the now cornered eater who would just as much like to spoil the perfection of the Butterfly Cake as they would ruin the smooth top of a freshly opened jar of any kind of spread. The Butterfly Cake always gets her man.

Begin by making a batch of your favourite vanilla cup cakes. It’s ok if they turn out a little wonky like mine often do,  there is nothing that I have found that cannot be trimmed and hidden with icing. If you don’t have a favourite vanilla cup cake recipe, I strongly suggest you find one quick smart, and in the mean time I will lend you mine.

Vanilla Cup Cake Recipe

125g Butter, softened and diced

3/4 cup of Sugar

A decent pour of Vanilla Essence

3 Eggs

2 cups Self-raising flour, sifted

1/2 cup of Milk, and a bit extra if you need it

1.  Preheat your oven to 180° fan forced.
2. Place approximately 24 patty pans into a cup cake tray. ( I usually make a medium sized cup cake rather than a minnie or muffin sized cake).
3. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla essence with electric beaters or mix master until well creamed.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beat until well combined between each.
5. Add milk and flour, a bit from each at a time. have the beaters on a low speed for this bit otherwise you will get flour and milk absolutely every wear.
6. Once everything is in, turn up the beaters and bead until the mixture starts to turn a lighter colour.
7. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the mixture into the patty pans. Let the mixture settle a little before placing them into the oven.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes. The cakes will be a golden brown colour and will spring when touched.
9. Let the cakes cool in trays for 5 minutes before removing them onto a cooling rack. Letting them cool to room temperature will make the paper soggy and fall off while your trying to ice them.

Ice your cakes with a basic glacé icing and dip them into decicated coconut. Let the cakes sit until the icing becomes firm and stops dribbling. Glacé icing will set to a moderate solidity, soft enough to cut but hard enough to put cling wrap over. I make it by putting around 2 cups of Icing Sugar Mixture in a bowl with a knob of butter, a splash of food colouring and a few teaspoons of hot water mixed in one at a time to make sure things don’t get too runny. TOO EASY!! This is usually enough for a whole batch of cup cakes and can be used in combination with sprinkles with superb effect.

Now the magic happens. Carefully, using a sharp, pointed knife, cut a cone shape out of the centre of each cake. Cut this cone in half, fill the hole with whipped cream and place the halves back on top sticking outwards.

The cream and wings will look so lovely that you wont need to fret about getting them all perfectly identical. In fact, I think a bit of wonky cream and icing dribbled down the side of a cake makes them all the more endearing and slightly less intimidating for the humble, garden variety house guest.

Other variations of this cake are equally enchanting. You could also try mixing berries into the whipped cream or a dollop of jam under the wings. Scrapping the icing and dusting with icing sugar is beautiful too. GO WILD!!! The possibilities are endless…

Happy Baking Lovelies

xxx