Butterfly Cakes

Let these gorgeous Butterfly Cakes flutter into your kitchen and weave some nostalgia 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.

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 to step you through this part.

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

Jump to:

• A taste of the 70s and 80s
• The recipe
• Ingredient notes
• How to make Butterfly Cakes
• How to assemble Butterfly Cakes
• Recipe FAQs
• More old-fashioned cakes
• Butterfly Cakes Recipe

A taste of the 70s and 80s

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

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 adjusted and modernised the ingredient measurements, added milk to the ingredient list, 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.

Ingredient notes

The ingredients you'll need to make the patty cakes are:

• eggs
• plain flour / all purpose flour 
• caster sugar / superfine sugar 
• butter (regular salted butter)
• baking powder
• vanilla extract.

The mock cream I use in this recipe is Nan Mac's (famous) mock cream, and requires:

• caster sugar / superfine sugar 
• water
• butter
• icing sugar / powdered sugar.

VARIATION IDEA: You can, of course, use whipped thickened cream or cool whip as an alternative here.

You'll also need some raspberry or strawberry jam and a little extra icing sugar for dusting.

The ingredient measurements can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Equipment

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

• cupcake tins
• patty pans – I think the plain white variety look best for these little cakes.

How to make Butterfly Cakes

This is a fairly straightforward recipe that produces 12-14 individual cakes.

Prepping

TIP: I recommend making 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. Otherwise, you need a good few hours and can speed up the process by placing the syrup in the fridge for an hour or so.

Okay, start by preheating your oven to moderate (180 degrees celsius/355 degrees fahrenheit) and lining the cupcake tins. Depending on the precise size of the patty pan (they can vary slightly) by filling them half full you should end up with 12 to 14 cakes.

Whipping up the batter

Start by beating the butter and sugar to a cream (see image 1).

Add the vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture and beat again for one minute. Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mixture and beat again until mixture is smooth (see image 2).

Next, alternately add the flour/baking powder and milk. Sift half of the flour and baking powder into mixture and gently fold together until combined (use a spatula or wooden spoon). Add half of the milk and stir into the mixture until combined. Sift the remaining half of the flour and baking powder into mixture and gently fold together until combined (use a spatula or wooden spoon). Stir through the remaining milk until the mixture forms a smooth batter (see image 3).

Baking

Scoop the mixture into patty pans, distributing the mixture as evenly as possible between each patty pan (see image 4).

TIP: Ensure your patty pans are as close to possible as half full. Depending on the precise size of the patty pan (they can vary slightly) by filling them half full you should have between 12 and 14 cakes. By filling the patty pans half full, the cakes should rise to just slightly below the top edge of the patty pans and dome slightly above the patty pans in the middle.

Bake for 14-18 minutes (or until the cakes have a domed top and are firm to touch when you press the top of the cake before removing from the oven).

Allow to cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes before removing the cakes from the tin to cool completely on a wire rack.

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.

TIP: 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. Whatever you do, 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 3 minutes. Remove from heat and, as I emphasised above, allow to cool completely.

To make the cream, whip the butter to a cream using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, increasing sped from low to high.

Add the sugar syrup to creamed butter very slowly while continuing to beat on low-medium speed.

Once the sugar syrup is added, add icing sugar ⅓ at a time, beating on low-medium speed after each addition.

How to assemble Butterfly Cakes

To assemble the cakes, you'll need your baked and cooled patty cakes, jam (in a small piping bag with a very small hole cut at the tip), mock cream or other cream (in a piping bag with a star tip), icing sugar and a small sieve (see image 5).

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 (see image 6). You should be able to scoop out a cone shaped piece of the cupcake once the circle is complete (see image 7).

Cut the cone-shaped piece of cake in half so you have two "wings" to sit on top of the mock cream (see image 8).

Adding jam?

You can add a little dob of jam in the centre before piping mock cream into the centre of the cupcake (see images 9 and 10). Alternatively, add the jam in between the wings on top of cakes.

To make your cakes look like butterflies have landed on them, you need to get the wings angled just right (see image 11).

TIP: To get those wings ready to fly, I find it easier to position both wings at the same time.

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 (see image 12).

Are your cakes ready to fly? Up, up and away!

Recipe FAQs

More old-fashioned cakes

Made this recipe and love it? Please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. (And it really makes my day to hear how Nana Ling's recipes are being made, shared and loved all around the world! - Libby x)

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