Butterfly Cakes

These are definitely a childhood favourite. I can distinctly remember they were a key feature of many a birthday party as they looked so at home amongst cocktail sausages, triangles of ham sandwiches and dubious flavoured crisps your mum assured you were ready salted (but they never were…). The simple butterfly cake is super easy and super cute, and the perfect way to use up left over buttercream or frosting from another recipe.

I used a tub of the chocolate buttercream left over from Lorraine Pascale’s Let Them Eat Cake, Cake, but if you’re starting from scratch then you’ll need 2oz of soft butter and 4oz of icing sugar. Blend them together till smooth and you’ll have buttercream. Add vanilla extract or cocoa powder depending on what flavour you want.

I’ve put a basic vanilla cake mix below, but the butterfly cake would work with pretty much any other sponge. I’m tempted to try a red velvet with a cream cheese frosting; or orange sponge with a rich chocolate buttercream. The combinations are endless so play around and be inventive: anything goes here!

Ingredients:
For the sponge:
6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
6oz self-raising flour
1tsp vanilla essence

For the decoration:
1 quantity of buttercream
Sweets – I used M&Ms, but any other kind of candy would work too

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a cupcake tin with cases.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until smooth. Beat the eggs together then add to the creamed butter and sugar a little at a time, along with a sprinkling of flour, and mix till fully incorporated. Add the vanilla essence and then the remaining flour in small batches, mixing thoroughly on each addition.

Once you have a smooth batter, divide evenly between cupcake cases. This should make around 12 cakes, with around 1 tbsp of batter in each case. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes or until the cakes have risen, are golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

Once cold, using a sharp knife cut out a circle of the sponge and place along-side the corresponding cake. Repeat for each one. Cut the separate pieces of sponge in half to make the butterfly wings.

Fill the cakes with several teaspoons of buttercream, and replace the wings on top of the cake, pressing them down carefully into the buttercream so they won’t fall off.

Decorate with your chosen sweets and enjoy!

Very simple, very quick and an instant hit with children (and adults!). Give them a go and let me know how you get on: everyone should be able to master these so send some pictures of your butterflies my way!