Butterfly cupcakes

My mom got me the book Hello, Cupcake! for Christmas and since then I've been searching for an excuse to make one of the creative cupcake designs featured in the book. A group party provided the perfect reason to try making monarch buttery cupcakes.

I started by piping melted chocolate melting wafers onto wax paper marked with a template. I used a toothpick to pull the brown chocolate into the orange center. White nonpareils were used to accent the top of the wings. I made one set of wings and antenna for each cupcake.

Betty Crocker chocolate cupcakes



I tinted 3/4 of a can of vanilla frosting yellow and frosted the cupcakes



Chocolate covered peanuts (goobers) were used for the butteryfly body and a supports for the wings


Two or four peanuts are placed on each cupake to support the wings


Prop the wings up
Add the piped chocolate antenna
The remaining 1/4 can frosting is tinted brown and used to cover the seam between the wings

Cover the brown frosting with 3 goobers

Final result: A herd of beautiful monarch butterflies!

Next time I make these I'll take the extra time to make the cake and frosting from scratch. After mainly using homemade buttercream for cake decorating the canned frosting just doesn't have the same appeal