Aren’t these cute?
I’m inviting Ozoz (The Kitchen Butterfly) and Heidi (Steps on the Journey) over for a virtual tea party. Oz because these are known here as butterfly cakes, and Heidi because our recent discussion inspired me to seek out this old-fashioned recipe, a staple of kids’ birthday parties alongside the fairy bread and chocolate crackles.
Butterfly cakes are usually vanilla flavoured, filled with cream and decorated with a little jam for colour, but I couldn’t resist this simple recipe from Trish Deseine’s Chocolate cookbook. The cake component is quite mildly flavoured, making it a perfect foil for the rich buttercream. Of course, you could easily adapt this technique to any cupcake recipe!
Cakes
- 125g (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 125g (40z) white sugar
- 3 large (59g) eggs
- 100g (3½ oz) plain (AP) flour
- 25g (1 oz) cocoa powder (sifted)
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder (sifted)
Butter cream
- 150g (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 250g (9 oz) icing sugar mixture (confectioner’s sugar)
- 40g (1½ oz) cocoa powder (sifted)
1. Preheat oven to 190C (375F) or 175C with fan (350F with fan). Line patty pans with paper cups.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until soft, then add the eggs one at a time and beat to incorporate. Add the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix well to combine.
3. Half fill the paper cups (mine took a heaped dessertspoon full each) and bake for about 15 minutes or until firm. The little cakes will be quite flat with a slightly domed top. Allow to cool completely.
4. To make the butter cream, stir the cocoa powder into two tablespoons of hot water to dissolve. In a mixing bowl, beat the dissolved cocoa powder, butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy, adding a little more hot water if necessary.
5. With a small sharp knife, carefully cut out a circle from the top of each cake, leaving a hollow dip on the top. Fill the hole with butter cream (I used a piping bag). Cut the removed circle into two halves, and position them in the butter cream at an angle to resemble butterfly wings. Now invite a few friends around for a tea party!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
looks beautiful and delicious!!! great ideas celia!
So cute! I think it would be fun to make 1/2 vanilla cupcakes and 1/2 chocolate… then put the opposite color butterfly on the cupcake… :) Now I wish it was Ava’s birthday already… well, not really. She needs to stay a baby forever lol.
Oh, they are adorable!
I’m not a big frosting fan but these look like just the right amount.
What are fairy bread and chocolate crackles?
Thanks for asking…and I’m glad Celia answered!
Waw!! You have done a splendid job!! You are also creative!!
These butterflies look awesome & the whole chocolate cupcakes all butterflied look amazing too, Celia!
MMMMMMMMMMM,…Kisses & many hand waves to you from Brussels!!
I really admire the consistency you’ve shown in the last photo, Celia – a whole swarm of identically sized butterflies – not a wing out of place!
My Mum used to make these for birthday parties all the time! They always had an icing that was a bit too heavy and after one you’d feel slightly ill, but just the right amount.
Aleida, thank you! You really can do this with any cupcake recipe. Butter cake cupcakes with whipped cream and a little line of jam to form the body are the norm! :)
Sasha, that is a genius idea! Multi-coloured butterflies! :)
Sally, Sophie, thank you!
Maz, chocolate crackles and fairy bread are a staple of Aussie kids’ birthday parties. Fairy bread is buttered white sandwich bread dipped in multi-coloured sprinkles (we call them 100s and 1000s), and chocolate crackles are a delightfully unhealthy concoction made by combining melted copha, cocoa, coconut, sugar and Rice Bubbles cereal together. This is then all set in little paper patty cases – it sets hard and crunchy. Some photos for you:
(www.funfacts.com.au)
(recipe at: http://www.kelloggs.com.au/tabid/152/Default.aspx)
Suelle, I'll pass that on to Small Man, thank you. He set all the wings as I wielded the piping bag – and he's a perfectionist! :)
Uncle Chris, if you were here, you could have come over for a tea party! :)
Ahhhh wonderful.
I’m more used to the traditional vanilla and jam varieties. Would you recomment Trish Deseine’s book? She has had a few TV programmes on the telly here.
Also I agree with Suelle … if I were doing them there might be a mammy butterfly, a daddy butterfly and lots of diff sized baby butterflies :-0
Gill, I would recommend the book, but it is an unusual one. The recipes are a little less fussy than say Bittersweet or the La Maison du Chocolat books – for example, the instructions for the cake part of this recipe simply said something like “beat all the ingredients together until combined”.
But it’s also a kind of laid back, easy going book and I find it great fun – I’ve made maybe half a dozen recipes from it. I posted a while back about the gooey pudding recipe from the book (the post is here) – that’s the one on the cover, and I think it gives a good feel for what the rest of the book is like.
This is a very special post, for many reasons – Daughter #1 loves chocolate. Daughter #1 is going to be 7 next week. Daughter #1 is having a party (of course) and guess what – she loves baking and cooking and these would WOW her completely. I’ve always wanted to make butterfly cupcakes and now I will. On another note, I think the sprinkles would be lovely just between the wings…..Promise some photos as soon as that’s done.
At first though, I thought those were silicone cups :-). LOL….and I feel full of hope!
Those are awesome! Do the sprinkles just stick to the bread or do you need butter or frosting.
That is enough sugar to sate even the sweetest tooth!
The crackles look delish!
One of the best birthday parties that we ever had for the boy included a cupcake decorating contest. I just set out a bunch of plain cupcakes and bowls of frosting and decorations. I had a bunch of tiny award ribbons made up ahead of time that I gave out (Scariest, sweetest, best use of the color blue, etc. :-)
Celia, they look absolutely adorable and the butterflies all look perfect – I always get a couple of broken wings. I love the idea of chocolate buttercream and chocolate cake for these, I’ve only ever made a vanilla version. I really wish I could come to your tea party!!!
Love your cupcake cases too, such lovely cheery bright colours!
Yes, I’d like one of those now please.
Actually I have to make cupcakes for a 3 yr old birthday tomorrow – will try these.
LOL..you’re all making me grin this morning! It feels like you’ve all come over for morning tea… :)
Oz, I think as the Kitchen Butterfly you should make butterfly cakes in all shapes and sizes and colours! I hope your daughter enjoys these…and that she has a wonderful birthday! I still have some of the sprinkles left that you sent me, will try them the next time I make these..thanks!
Maz, the fairy bread is made by buttering white sandwich bread and dipping it into a bowl of sprinkles. The ultimate sugar hit. It has to be commercial sliced white sandwich bread too – no five year old is ever going to eat sourdough fairy bread. A cupcake decorating contest sounds like a fabulous party game! :)
C, you are absolutely invited to our virtual tea party as well! I’ve set a place for you already.. :)
Anna, hope you like them! As I said, you could pretty much use any cupcake recipe to make these, as long as it’s firm enough to cut a circle out of the top!
My mum used to make butterfly cakes on the odd occasion and they were always gobbled up straight away. Did yours get eaten straight away by your growth spurting boys :-)
I think I was the only kid at any party that didn’t like fairy bread and chocolate crackles- The Monkeys are going to have a deprived childhood!
Brydie..sigh..you’re spot on. It was like feeding butterflies to wolves.. :D
These look delicious, Celia.
I don’t miss the days of small childrens parties, but I am still very partial to a butterfly cake or a chocolate crackle!
Ok- First- thank you for the invitation! I love tea parties- and one with fairy cakes is fantastic.
Second- Those are beautiful! I am in the midst of butterfly cravings.
And third- I AM making these next week for my part of my DIL’s b-day party!
Those are too good to pass up – and I’m taking my 100s and 100s to decorate them.
You are brilliant!
Small man really has made them all look (scarily) perfect!
And no kids birthday party is complete without fairy bread and chocolate crackles. We made some for Sam’s 10th birthday recently and the kids at the party were so excited to see them (and demolish a huge box of them). Perhaps a sign that they are not on offer quite so often anymore with most parties being held at party venues?
These are cute Celia.
Wow! Those cupcakes look fantastic. I’ve never heard (or seen) butterfly cakes or the other things you talked about. I’m not much of a baker these days. Maybe I could find some soft chocolate waifers to use for the butterfly part of a store bought cupcake (of course I’ll take credit for “making” them). :) My anniversary (6 years – yikes!) is this coming weekend and I think those would work really well for my little coffee and dessert get together I’m planning. Thanks for the tasty ideas – again.
Cat
Oh, how cute, Celia! It must be the week for cupcakes, because I was called into the school to do a ‘mini masterchef class’ and took along 2 batches of cupcakes for half a dozen grade 5/6 kids to decorate with fondant, chocolate, lollies and food colouring. O.M.G, The food colouring! You’ve never seen anything quite like it!! They went through a WHOLE packet of latex gloves…eek! Your butterfly cupcakes do indeed look marvellous!! :)
PS. I just clicked on the pic of Bertie – she is a wild one alright! That comb!! What’s she doing standing proud on the outside of the chook dome though, isn’t she meant to be IN it, doing your gardening for you? Lol!! :)
Amanda, I always promise myself I’m not going to have a chocolate crackle, and then end up having several! They’re very moreish, but all that copha!
Heidi, thank you for coming to my tea party! :) I hope you have fun making butterfly cakes (also known as fairy cakes here as well!).
Anna, thank you! :)
SG, Small Man is pretty fussy. The angles had to be just right. I think party venues would do better if they actually served fairy bread and chocolate crackles, rather than just bowls of Cheezels…
Cat, happy anniversary! I think the wafers would work well!
Chris, your comments always make me laugh so much – I can just see you surrounded by 10 year olds in latex gloves wielding blue and red food colouring! Scary stuff! :)
And Bertha is a wild woman of a chicken, thank you, that’s exactly the right description of her! You should see her today, she has breast feathers on both the right and left sides sticking out everywhere. Groom yourself, woman! I keep telling her, but she just ignores me and looks at me with her scary eyes.. :) She’s not out of the dome, we cheated and called her up to take a photo. She was tempted to escape, but they’re so happy in their little home that she didn’t…
I’d love to be invited to your virtual party too please. I could eat everthing ‘virtually’ without worrying about intolerances! By the way, I like Earl grey tea please.
Aww how gorgeous Celia! And I like your idea of a virtual tea party! That way you can have tea with anyone around the world! :D
Chef, I’ve set your place and poured your tea – virtual milk? :)
Lorraine, you, of course, have a standing invitation to our tea party.. :)
The cakes do look like little butterflies! Love the colourful cupcake papers too, and REALLY love the idea of a virtual tea party! The possibilities are endless, aren’t they?
Oh Celia this is such great timing! it’s Lola’s 3rd birthday in a couple of weeks and I was going to make cupcakes again like I did last year but this really takes me back to my own childhood birthday parties and I think I’ll make these now (I’m going to use the idea of two different colours/flavours as suggested by Sasha – maybe half orange and half chocolate – and swap the wings).
Thanks for the nostalgic trip!
I think I am too late for the virtual party – oh well, next time :-D These are the times I get really sad that I don’t have children for all the fun birthday party treats. However a cupcake in any form with a good cup of tea is ALWAYS a hit! Yours look lovely and light in colour and texture!
:-) Mandy
Honey, thank you! I found the patty pan liners at Rewards Distribution in Camperdown (a hospitality supplier) – from memory they were very cheap!
Sarah, have fun! I hope Lola loves them!
Mandy, not too late at all, I saved you a seat.. :) They weren’t really light, but they were nice. Thanks!
Oh! I want THESE for my birthday!!!
[…] Since I started blogging, I’ve been following Fig Jam and Lime Cordial with devout envy of Celia’s wonderful cooking skills and creativity. Her post today inspired my post because as mentioned above, I’m participating in a prolonged panic attack over my upcoming birthday and when I saw these it just gave me a little hope that maybe this year’s birthday would be a chance to change and come out a butterfly. I’m not sure if I’ll ever enjoy my own birthday the way that most do but if I could love myself a little more and learn to be a little more flexible maybe I learn to stop stressing the small stuff. Aren’t these cute? I’m inviting Ozoz (The Kitchen Butterfly) and Heidi (Steps on the Journey) over for a virtual tea party. Oz because these are known here as butterfly cakes, and Heidi because our recent discussion inspired me to seek out this old-fashioned recipe, a staple of kids’ birthday parties alongside the fairy bread and chocolate crackles. Butterfly cakes are usually vanilla flavoured, filled with cream and decorated with a little jam … Read More […]
Cassandra, thanks for the re-blog! If you weren’t on the other side of the globe, I’d make you a batch! :)
Am I too late, I could just hover at the corner of the table ? :) Sorry if I’ve missed the party – I love flutterby cupcakes – one of my favourites and yours look beautiful!
Btw I made that uppercrust apple pie and my crust detached from the rim of the dish and fell in, but MIRACULOUSLY stayed crisp and nice, though it looked a mess, but it was a good pie all the same and I know where I went wrong, so thanks for bumping that one up !
Oh, not at all, this is like one of those parties we used to have at uni that went on for days, with a changing cast. So pull up a chair, love, and I’ll pour.. :)
That uppercrust pie of Dan’s has the nicest pastry – although I think I’m biased by all the Calvados I drank as I was making it.. :)
Hope your computer is mended?
Just a splash thanks, but no sugar… I’m sweet enough!
Love it!! I’ll have to try this for the kiddos, who love anything made into animal shapes.
Thanks Abby! I hope the kids enjoy them! :)
How about some pink jelly babies in the middle of the wings, then they could be fairy cakes. (I’ve had two girls)
Hahaha…great idea, Frances! :)
Making these………………not all as pretty as yours but happy to have attempted and accomplished them. Party is in a couple of hours. Enjoy your weekend………….and will have to try the Ottolenghi pasta soon!
Cool, thanks for letting me know, Oz! Hope your daughter has a wonderful party, and happy birthday to her! :)