A Flutter of Butterflies

Saturday little j picked our activity so Sunday was my turn and I chose cupcake making. It was way too hot to be outside so an afternoon of cupcaking (oh yeah, I just turned a noun into a verb) seemed like a good choice. A while ago I bought Hello, Cupcake: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make, and even though both little j and I have looked at it numerous times we really haven't had a chance to make a batch.

And last night I knew why -- we started the cupcakes at about 1:00 in the afternoon. By 4:00 we had the cupcakes baked and frosted and the decorations complete but not on the cupcakes. We went out to grab a slice of pizza at 5:30 then came back and finished up the cupcakes which took another 45 minutes. That's a lot of time for a 5-year old to stay focused. But little j is a trooper.

Here's our process, complete with photos!

We began by making chocolate cupcakes using a recipe from Gourmet, sans the butterscotch icing. And just a note on this recipe: it calls for baking the cupcakes for 20 - 25 minutes. Way too long! Ours were baked through at 12. I am not sure if I would use this recipe again, it was a little dry, but not bad.

Here are the cooled cupcakes:


After making the cupcakes we started making the wings. We made 27 sets (15 large and 12 small) as well as antennae.


The wings were much easier than I anticipated. I piped the candy and little j made the designs with a toothpick and then added the sprinkles. (Clearly we need more kitchen space since we stored the completed wings on the piano!)

Then we made the frosting: butter cream with yellow coloring. I generally use gel food coloring because it is easier to control.


After frosting the cupcakes it was finally time to put the butterflies on. This turned out to be a lot easier than I anticipated. little j separated all the yellow M&Ms out of a big bag of the candy and I pushed two into each cupcake to support the wings. Then I set the wings on, pushing them slightly into the frosting. I added the antenna and piped chocolate frosting down the center of the wings for the body.


This morning little j and I took the cupcakes in to share with her friends at Summer Camp. She was incredibly excited and I'm really happy that we did this together. What a great mother-daughter Sunday activity!