Butterfly Cakes are easy to make and fun to assemble. Good for beginner bakers or children to make for tea. Step-by-step instructions to make the butterflies are included.
Butterfly Cakes are fun to make and great for an afternoon's baking with the children. I make these in fairy cake cases so they're small and won't spoil a meal - and they're always good instead of pudding. You could make them for children's parties, where they always go down well.
Ring the changes
I've used vanilla buttercream, but you could make a chocolate version by substituting a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder for icing sugar. The icing won't be quite as sweet, but that isn't really an issue with these little cakes. You could also put jam in the buttercream as a flavouring, which avoids artificial flavours. Unless you sieve the jam there will be bits - but you might not mind that.
Make cupcakes instead of fairy cakes
If you want to make cupcakes, buy the larger paper cases (and tins) and make half as many (about 10 instead of 20).
Step-by-step instructions for assembling Butterfly Cakes
- Use a small, sharp knife to cut a cone-shaped out of the cake. Start near one edge and push the point down and towards the centre. Keeping the point in the same place, move the knife around the cake
- Fill the cavity with buttercream and cut the cone shape in half
- Position the 'wings' on the cake
What equipment do you need?
12-hole bun tins - These tins are the perfect size for jam tarts and for fairy cakes. Unlike muffin tins, the paper cases sit above the edge of the depressions, which is absolutely fine. For this recipe, you will need two bun tins.
If you like this...
...Why don't you try:
Jammy Buns
Cherry Buns
Rock Buns
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Recipe
Butterfly Cakes
Ingredients
For the Cakes:
- 125 g butter at room temperature
- 125 g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 150 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (5ml)
- Large pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)
For the Buttercream:
- 100 g butter at room temperature
- 200 g icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)
Equipment
Instructions
PREPARATION:
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/ 170°C fan/ gas mark 5/ 375°F
- Line the bun tins with 20 paper cases
For the cakes:
- Beat the cake ingredients together thoroughly using any method: wooden spoon, hand or stand mixer, or processor(Butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract)
- Put a heaped teaspoon of mixture into each paper case
- Cook for 15-20 minutes until the cake surface springs back when you touch it lightly with your fingertip
- Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.
For the buttercream:
- Beat the softened butter and vanilla extract with an electric whisk
- Add the icing sugar gradually, beating well as you go
To decorate the cakes:
- Use a small, sharp knife to cut a cone-shaped out of the cake. Start near one edge and push the point down and towards the centre. Keeping the point in the same place, move the knife round the cake.
- Fill the cavity with buttercream
- Cut the cone shape in half
- Position the 'wings' on the cake
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