Butterfly Cakes
A delicious and simple decorated vanilla cupcake that will always be a huge hit at kids' (big and small) birthday parties. They're filled with whipped cream and jam, then decorated to look like a butterfly. A true nostalgic treat!
Servings: 12
Ingredients
Patty Cakes
- 125 g unsalted butter room temp
- 112 g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 225 g self raising flour
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling
- ½ cup cream
- 1 tsp caster sugar to taste
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract to taste
- ¼ cup raspberry jam
- icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
Patty Cakes
- Pre heat your oven to 180℃ or 350℉ and line your patty cake/cupcake pan with paper liners (I just use patty pan liners from the supermarket)
- Place the caster sugar and room temperature butter in a large bowl
- Using an electric hand mixer, beat on low speed until it starts to combine, then increase the speed to medium for about 2 minutes
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again on low, then medium until well combined. Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula, to ensure everything mixes in well
- Stop the mixer, then add ⅓ of the self-raising flour, then ⅓ of the milk, mixing on low. Continue adding in thirds until it's almost combined. Stop and finish mixing with you spatula to avoid over mixing the cake batter.
- Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the batter, popping it into the cupcake liners
- Bake at 180 celsius or 350 fahrenheit for 15-18 minutes, until golden. Check the cakes with a cake skewer, then remove from the oven
- Allow to cool in the tin, before transferring your patty cakes to a cooling rack
- Once cooled, assemble with Chantilly Cream and jam
Filling
- Place the cream, caster sugar and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk with an electric handheld mixer or Bamix
- Fit a large open star tip (or your favourite piping tip) to a piping bag and fill the bag with the Chantilly cream
- Place the jam in another disposable piping bag and snip off a small section from the end
Assembly
- Use a small sharp knife on a slight angle to cut a circle out of the top of each cupcake
- Cut each of these circles in half -these are your butterfly wings
- Pipe about half a teaspoon of jam into the centre of each cupcake, then pipe a generous amount of cream on top
- With the straight side of the wings facing in, gently press the wings into the cream, slightly angling them up
- Dust with a sprinkle of icing sugar, then pipe a thin line of jam through the centre of the wings
Notes
Notes
- Use a large ice cream scoop to scoop out the cake batter, scraping it along the side of the bowl to get the right amount.
- Avoid over mixing the batter by finishing the mixing off by hand
- We always used (patty cake tins -they are more shallow than a regular cupcake or muffin tin). If you don't have patty tins, just use the cupcake tin you do have.
- Bake time can vary, just as all ovens can vary. Keep an eye on your Patty Cakes at 15 minutes, to see if they're done.
- When cutting circles from your patty cakes, use a small sharp knife on a slight angle, so you don't cut too deep -just enough to form wings
- When cutting a small hole in the piping bag of jam, leave enough room for the raspberry seeds to escape as well
- Cupcake: this is a basic cupcake recipe, so if you want to make these butterfly cakes extra soft and delicious, try using my Vanilla Cupcake recipe -it's just a little fancier
- Jam: not a fan of jam? Use my caramel sauce or lemon curd instead, for a delicious twist on this childhood favourite.
- Chocolate version: Turn these vanilla butterfly cakes into a chocolate butterfly, using my amazing Chocolate Cupcake Recipe