Butterfly Cakes

Let these gorgeous Butterfly Cakes flutter into your kitchen and weave some happiness throughout your home.

With just a couple of extra steps – wings and a sprinkling of icing sugar – you can take ordinary vanilla cupcakes to soaring new heights.

Why you’ll fall in love with Butterfly Cakes

Whether it’s love at first sight, or falling in love all over again, these Butterfly Cakes have an old-fashioned charm that’s hard to resist.

They bring together that classic combo of vanilla cake and sweet mock cream – with a little raspberry jam added, if that’s your jam!

They’re also far less tricky to make than you might expect! The most difficult part might be cutting out and attaching the wings – and there are clear and simple instructions below (and a video) to step you through this part.

Butterfly Cakes are perfect for your next 80s-themed party, kids’ birthday party or whenever you want to pause for a moment and step back to a time that seemed a whole lot simpler.

Birthdays and butterfly cakes: my memories

Whenever I see these beautifully simple butterfly cakes – and we don’t see them near enough these days – I think of kids birthday parties when I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s.

A big plate of these extra special cupcakes could usually be found amongst the party pies, devon rolls, frankfurts, pikelets, fairy bread, frogs in a pond, lollies and chips.

The birthday cake itself would be a simple one, iced generously with bright sprinkles. If you were lucky that year, you may be treated to a birthday cake from the Australian’s Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake cookbook.

In this picture, I’m smiling on what appears to be my 5th birthday.

You can’t see any cupcakes or vanilla butterfly cakes, but there’s a rather large bowl of jelly snakes and candles glowing in front of me.

I don’t know what I wished for, but life was good so I didn’t need to wish for much.

We’d just entered a new decade in this picture, the 80’s.

The furnishings and the phone in the photo certainly don’t know it, they’re still stuck back in the good old 70’s. Yes kids, that mustard thing above my head in the photo is a phone!

And I may not have known it back then, but I’m also smiling because I’m one of the last generations of kids to enjoy life with a mustard dial phone.

While we love our smartphones, the convenience comes with a cost.

Okay, enough of my memories. (I did tell you this recipe will take you back in time!)

The Recipe for Butterfly Cakes

This recipe is one of Nana Ling’s handwritten recipes and is dated 1941.

I’ve included a picture of the original recipe below, but please note I have simplified the ingredient measurements, clarified some of the steps and added the mock cream recipe – so please keep scrolling to find the updated recipe card at the end of this post.

How to make Butterfly Cakes

This is an easy recipe that produces 12 lovely cupcakes that look good and taste great.

In addition to the ingredients listed above (and below, along with measurements), you’ll also need:

• cupcake tins
• patty pans.

TIP: Make the sugar syrup for the Mock Cream the day before you plan to make your cakes to ensure it has completely cooled before making the cream.

Prepping

Preheat your oven to moderate (180 degrees celsius/355 degrees fahrenheit).

Line the cupcake tins with 12 paper patty pans.

Mixing

Start by beating the butter and sugar to a cream.

Whisk eggs well and add to butter and sugar mixture along with vanilla essence. Beat again to combine.

Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and gently fold together to form a smooth batter (use a spatula or wooden spoon).

Baking

Scoop the mixture into patty pans, distributing the mixture as evenly as possible between each patty pan.

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

Allow to cool completely after removing from the oven.

Making the Mock Cream

This mock cream requires you to make up a sugar syrup and then allow it to cool before you make the cream.

My advice is to make sugar syrup up a day or two in advance if possible. If you don’t you can speed up the cooling process by putting it into the fridge.

But please ensure the sugar syrup has completely cooled before making the cream.

To make the sugar syrup, combine the water and sugar over heat until sugar is dissolved.

Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

To make the cream, whip the butter to a cream, then add the sugar syrup very slowly while continuing to beat.

Once the sugar syrup has been added, add the icing sugar 1/3 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Decorating Butterfly Cakes

Cut a round circle in the top of each cupcake, leaving only a little space at the edges and angling the knife towards the centre of the cupcake. You should be able to scoop out a cone shaped piece of the cupcake once the circle is complete.

Adding jam?

You can add a little dob of jam in the centre before piping mock cream into the centre of the cupcake. Alternatively, add the jam in between the wings on top of cakes.

Cut the cone-shaped piece of cake in half so you have two “wings” to sit on top of the mock cream.

TIP: To make your cakes look like butterflies have landed on them, you need to get the wings angled just right. Look at the pictures in this post and watch the how-to video in this post to see how the cakes are assembled – and get those wings looking like they are ready to fly.

Once you’ve added the wings to all of the cupcakes, add the jam (if you’re using jam to decorate the top of the cake) and dust lightly with icing sugar.

Up, up and away!

Recipe FAQs

Q. How do I store these cupcakes?

Since they contain cream, store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Q. How long will they keep?

Your cakes are best eaten the day you make them, however they will keep for up to 3 days.

Q. How to cut butterfly cakes?

I’ve outline the method of creating the butterfly wings in the post above.

Q. Do you have any cake recipes?

Plenty! I can absolutely recommend the Boiled Chocolate Cake, Carrot Cake, Swiss Roll, Banana Bread and Sponge Cake.