Flutterbys

Butterfly Cupcakes

So the other week, to cheer myself up, I bought a butterfly cake tin. The thing with such detailed tins is thinking about beyond how pretty the detail is. Did I think about whether the detail would even be visible under the icing that I would put on the cupcakes? No. Did my mind go further than 'ooooh pretty butterflies!!!'? No, it did not.

So when I decided to come up with some pretty cupcakes to make for Sophie's birthday (see butterfly Barbie ice cream cake post), I was sure that I could use my tin to make gorgeous ones. I changed my mind as soon as it was time to go from these gorgeous things:

To something that would accentuate the pretty details.. I just couldn't figure out a good way to point out all the little delicate decorations. So, I went to a more 'hey look- pretty colours!!' approach:

I was a bit conflicted about how these turned out initially, and I'm still changing my mind about them every few minutes. Next time I'll definitely go for a small pipe and more detail, but the bottom line is: these cupcakes were yummy, and the kids loved the decorations!

I used my favourite Nigella fairy cakes for the cupcakes themselves, and made vanilla buttercream for the icing. I raided the cupboard for decorations and came up with some nice pearls and hearts, which seemed to work nicely!

Ralph took all of these gorgeous photos. He makes my baking look like I see it through my rose coloured  lens eyes, and I'm glad that it's how the world gets to see it.