Butterfly cakes always take me on a trip down memory lane. A close relative of fairy cakes, they were also a staple of children’s birthday parties and a very early experience of baking.
These simple little butterfly cakes can be made with children as no skill is required to make very effective ‘butterflies’.
However, they can also be decorated with finesse: fit to grace any grown-up event.
The following is a step-by-step guide to the basic method to get you started.
Making butterfly cakes
First, bake a batch of fairy cakes (you can find the recipe here) and leave them to cool completely.
Using a sharp knife, cut the middle out of the top of a fairy cake. Hold the knife at an angle so you end up with a spinning top-shaped piece of sponge and a fairy cake with an indent.
Cut the cut-out piece of cake in half down the middle.
Put a large dollop of buttercream into the hollow you made by cutting the middle out of it.
Now place the two halves of sponge at an angle as per the photo below, to make ‘butterfly wings’. It doesn’t matter too much whether you put the straight sides together or the curved sides. It’s about creating an overall aesthetic rather than an anatomically-correct insect!!
And a little icing sugar always makes things look more special, so feel free to finish with a flurry.
I decided to take things one step further and decorate the cut-out cake before cutting it in half and placing the ‘wings’ on.
I used water icing (a simple mixture of icing sugar and a few drops of water) and some sugar cake decorations.
The result is a little rustic, but quite pretty, if I do say so myself. Plus, it’s a winner on the taste front too – why chose between buttercream and water icing when you can have both? (Perhaps for health reasons, you might say …)
I’ll definitely try making some that really look like butterflies, just as soon as I can get my hands on some liquorice shoelaces for feelers …
In the meantime, please share your creations with me on Instagram by tagging me @hollyspinny