Butterfly cakes

This recipe is lovely and easy – great fun to make in the holidays with a small helper. The butterfly bodies can be piped, or splodged with a spatula if you'd rather. The results will be great either way! 

Ingredients 

For the butterfly cakes: 

2 large free-range eggs 

100g caster sugar 

100g self-raising flour 

80g salted butter, melted and slightly cooled 

1 tsp vanilla essence 

For the decoration: 

150g salted butter, softened 

200g icing sugar 

food colourings of your choice 

sprinkles 

Equipment 

Tala Performance 6 cup muffin pan 

6 Tala cupcake cases 

Mixing bowl 

Whisk 

Tala flour sifter 

Silicone headed spatula 

Cooling rack 

Bread knife/serrated knife 

Mini palette knife 

Smaller mixing bowls for the icing 

Tala piping bag 

Large piping nozzle – star or round tip 

Makes: 6 butterfly cakes 

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius fan (338 degrees Fahrenheit) and line the muffin pan with cupcake cases. 
• Crack the eggs into the mixing bowl, add the sugar and whisk for about a minute until frothy. 
• Sift the flour into the bowl and fold with the silicone-headed spatula. Trickle in the butter and keep folding until incorporated into the mixture. 
• Divide the mixture evenly between the cases – they may seem very full, but don't worry they are meant to be. 
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and domed. They should spring back when pressed on top (take care not to burn yourself if testing this way). 
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes in the pan, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. 
• While the cakes are cooling, make some buttercream by creaming the butter and icing sugar together until smooth and pale. 
• Use a bread knife to level the cakes by cutting off the domes that have risen above the cupcake cases. Cut each 'dome' in half and set aside for the moment. 
• Spread the cut surface of each cake with buttercream using a mini palette knife (a table knife will do for this job). 
• Colour the remaining buttercream any colour you like and transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large nozzle. 
• Pipe a butterfly 'body' by piping a line of icing, then take the cut cake domes and stick them on either side of the icing as shown in the pictures. You can pipe more icing on top if you like. 
• Decorate with sprinkles and serve! 

Tips: 

If you are worried about piping the butterfly bodies, practice on a plate first. The icing can be scraped up and re-used 

Experiment with different nozzles and see what different effects you can get 

You can find packs of sprinkles with assorted shapes – pick out the long strands and use these for 'antennae', if you like!