BUTTERFLY CUPCAKES

My eldest daughter requested some cupcakes for her Tinkerbell birthday party.  I love cupcakes, I think they are the cutest little things, but I was making a cake covered with fondant, serving marshmallows, chocolate and lots of other sugary items already.  The thought of making frosted cupcakes too, was not really appealing to me.  I was going to serve them to small kids after all!  And we all know, too much sugar is not a great idea.  So, I decided to find a recipe that did not require frosting to look pretty.  As the theme was nature, I immediately got hooked to these super easy and great looking butterfly cupcakes.  No frosting needed.  You just spoon 2 tsp of your favourite filling on them, just to keep the “wings” in place, and you are done.  Easy and quick to make.  I used Crème Patissière for my filling because we use it a lot in our sweets in Italy and I love it, but you can use anything you like: jam, Nutella, whipped cream, lemon (or any other fruit) curd!  You get the idea.  You could also use different fillings and have different coloured butterflies!  So many possibilities for such a simple recipe.  I loved the way they looked and they tasted really yummy too!  Enjoy!

5 from 1 vote

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Butterfly Cupcakes

How to bake and decorate cupcakes that look like butterflies!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: International

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Author: Manuela Zangara

Ingredients

• 100 gms – 7 tbsp unsalted butter softened
• 185 gms – 6.5 oz. caster sugar sifted
• ½ tsp vanilla extract or essence
• 200 gms – 1.6 cups self-raising flour sifted
• 125 ml – ½ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 batch of Crème Patissière cooled

Instructions

1. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
3. Add the flour and milk in alternate batches until just combined.
4. Spoon the batter evenly into a 12 hole standard muffin tray lined with paper cases.
   
5. Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC – 355ºF for about 20 minutes or until cooked through.
6. When ready, remove the cupcakes from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. When cold, use a sharp knife to cut small circles from the centre of each cupcake about 5 mm – 0.2 inches in from the edge of the cupcake. Make sure to slant-cut down 1 cm – 0.4 inches into the cupcake. Lift out the small rounds of cake and cut each round in half, to make the wings of a butterfly. Spoon about 2 tsp of Crème Patissière into the hollow and place the wings on top of the cream.
8. Like this.
   
9. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

You will have some crème patissière left. You can use it to make Profiteroles or Fruit Tartelettes. You can keep it in the fridge for 2 or 3 days.