Butterfly Cupcakes!

Baby turned one this week! I've always wanted to be 'that mom' I have dreams of being the house all the kids come hang out at after school, with warm cookies waiting for them. I knew I had to do something special--it was her FIRST birthday!

Mom got me the book Hello, Cupcake! for Christmas this year. I immediately picked out the butterfly cupcakes. I HAD to make them. This turned out to be the perfect occasion!


I made two kinds of cake: Chocolate and Apple. I wanted a 'healthier' cake option for the little ones (apple), and Husband loves all things chocolate, I'm rather picky about my chocolate. (I don't like it in chip form. or ice cream form. or cake form.) Basically, I like chocolate, but not chocolate flavored things. ANYWAY, I asked my favorite blogger for her favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. These are great. I even liked them and I don't like chocolate cake. They're a bit tangy, and not too sweet. Husband thought they could be more 'chocolate-y' but everyone else raved about them! (Thanks, Alauna). They're dense and perfect. Mine fell a bit, but I do live a mile high, and haven't quite perfected the art of baking at altitude.

The apple cake was a slight adaptation from the Williams Sonoma Essentials of Baking. While they're not exactly "healthy" they DO have apples in them. That counts, right?
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp salt
3/4c unsalted butter
1 1/2c granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2c buttermilk
2c diced, peeled apples (I used two average sized apples and didn't measure this exactly)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Fold in 1/3 the flour mixture until almost incorporated. Then, fold in 1/2 the buttermilk. Alternate with more flour, the rest of the buttermilk, and end with flour. Fold until the batter is smooth and flour is incorporated.

This recipe is actually for a 13x9 cake, but it worked just fine for cupcakes. These even rose for me! The result is cinnamon-y, and the texture is light and fluffy. These were great, and baby loved them. But, then again, she'll eat anything with cinnamon. :)

On to the fun part! Decorating them with beautiful butterflies! I didn't manage to take any pictures while I was making them. I was busy stressing about the party. I'll do my best to walk you through it, but Hello, Cupcake! really does a fantastic job.

I frosted the cupcakes first, using a technique I used for a different type of cupcake from the book. Start with a tub of store-bought frosting. Put it in the microwave for 15 second intervals until it is soft and runny, the consistency of pancake batter. Dip cupcakes in and let frosting dry. This method of frosting is so much faster than traditional frosting, AND the result is amazing, perfectly frosted cakes. So smooth looking! And the frosting dries semi-hard, great for decorating.

For the butterflies, draw wing shapes on a piece of paper, put wax paper over it, and pipe melted Wilton candy wafers onto the paper. I started with the chocolate outline, and while it was still wet, I piped the color inside the chocolate. Then, take a toothpick to 'swirl' the chocolate into the color and combine them. Each wing is made separately. Also, pipe antennae shapes on the wax paper with the chocolate wafers.
**Please note: you can NOT put food coloring into the melting wafers. I learned this from experience. You can dye them, but you must use powdered food coloring, available at a baking supply store.

When all the wings and antennae are dry, carefully peel off the wax paper. Place each wing on cupcake with a chocolate chip under each one, to help hold them in an upright position. Place antennae between wings, and pipe a body onto the cupcake. I used more chocolate wafers for this, and it worked great, as it dried quickly, and fused the wings upright and the antennae all together.

These look incredibly impressive, and make a perfect centerpiece.