Butterfly Cakes are easy to make and fun to assemble. Great for beginner bakers or children to make for tea. Step-by-step instructions to make the butterflies are included.

Butterfly Cakes

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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. I have made them for children’s parties too, where they always go down well.

If you’re new to baking these cakes are a nice introduction to creating something that looks good and tastes delicious. Perfect for friends over for the evening or taking to work. I also like them for charity coffee mornings. If you wanted to make them a bit fancier, you could pipe the icing in a swirl, like I did for these Easy Valentine Cupcakes. It does use more buttercream, but it looks good.

I’ve used vanilla buttercream here, 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 (I don’t).

You can buy paper cases in any supermarket, and it’s quite easy to get carried away with the pretty patterns you can choose from. Just be careful to buy the right size. If you want to make cupcakes, buy the larger paper cases (and tins) and make half as many (about 10 instead of 20).

HELPFUL TOOLS

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.

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Butterfly Cakes

Author: Everyday Cooks
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 18-20 fairy cakes 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Butterfly Cakes are easy to make and fun to assemble. Great for kids to make for tea.

You will need:

2 x 12-hole bun tins
Fairy cake paper cases

Scale

Ingredients

For the Cakes:

125g butter – at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Large pinch of salt
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract

For the Buttercream:

100g butter at room temperature
200g icing sugar
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract

Instructions

PREPARATION:

Set the oven to 170°C fan, gas mark 5
Line the bun tins with 20 paper cases

For the cakes:

Beat the cake ingredients together thoroughly – butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract
- Use any method: wooden spoon, hand or stand mixer, or processor
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