Butterfly Cupcakes
My daughter’s fourth birthday was yesterday and I decided to try my hand at making the butterfly cupcakes from the book Hello, Cupcake. But I got my inspiration from Annie’s Eats’ rainbow butterfly cupcakes, which are absolutely stunningly gorgeous.
My daughter’s favorite color is green, so she insisted on green butterflies. I made the butterflies the day before her birthday and stored them in the refrigerator overnight.
I did have problems making these butterflies! I actually am quite disappointed that they didn’t turn as beautiful as the orange butterflies in the book, or Annie’s rainbow butterflies. The problem I had was with the candy chocolates. While the dark chocolate was easy to work with, I had problems with the green chocolate – I don’t know why, but it just wouldn’t get liquidy enough to easily fill in the dark chocolate outline and I didn’t want to burn it by heating it more and more. It stayed really thick and wasn’t very easy to swirl the dark chocolate into, so the butterfly wings didn’t end up very smooth-looking with all those green peaks. And for some reason, the dark chocolate outline ended up developing light-colored streaks in it after it dried.
I have worked with candy chocolate coatings before and didn’t have problems with melting the chocolate. The only difference was that previously I used chocolate from Make n’ Mold. For these butterflies, I used Clasen.
Despite the troubles, my daughter (and son!) had no problems ripping into these cupcakes at the birthday party!
Making the butterflies was a little bit more difficult and time-consuming than I thought they would be, although maybe that’s just because of my problems with the chocolate. I would like to try making them again, as the effect of all the butterflies together looks pretty neat, but perhaps try a different chocolate coating, just to see if it makes a difference.
Has anyone else made the Hello, Cupcake butterflies? What was your experience like?
What a lucky girl!
I saw Annie’s Eats butterfly cupcakes and knew I had to make them! Luckily I had a baby shower and a birthday party to bake for. They were perfect. I haven’t posted on my site yet, but I do have a couple of pics in my Flickrstream.
Once I got going, it went quickly. I had never worked with chocolate before, so I am no good at giving tips. I didn’t make the antenna because mine were just too thin. I’ll attempt that again, though.
I still think yours look awesome!!!
Amy, don’t worry, I fixed it for you! Your butterflies do look perfect and so smooth on top! Just out of curiosity, what brand of chocolate did you use?
I don’t know if you tried this or not, but if the chocolate you are using is too thick after being melted, try mixing oil in with it! It won’t do anything weird to the chocolate but will help thin it out and make it easier to work with.
Kendahl, no, I didn’t even know I could add oil to the chocolate! Do you mean just vegetable oil?
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I think these turned out really great and I love how you did them in green! I did make these a few months back using Nestle white chocolate for baking (a product that we get here in France) that I ten tinted orange.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catbeurnier/3372012511/
The problem I had was that the dark chocolate for the edges dried before I even had a chance to swirl the orange into it. And I didn;t have the small white pearls used for accents. I keep saying I will go back and try these again cause I certainly did like the look of them and I now do have those white pearls!
I think the butterflies are lovely!
I love peeking at your website from time to time for inspiration, even though I’ve never commented.
But I came out of lurkdom to say your butterflies look just wonderful,and what a lucky girl to have them for her birthday! My son is 3 and he only gets store-bought candy Elmos on his (at least homemade) cupcakes.
Thanks for all the compliments!
Little Miss Cupcake, you should definitely try to make them again! With mine, I did the butterfly wings one-by-one – I outlined them then immediately filled them in – so the chocolate outline wouldn’t dry.
I made these last year for a co-worker who love butterflies. I always melt the chocolate in a double boiler set-up, I find the microwave doesn’t work that well. Also, I only did one wing at a time – first the chocolate outline, then filled in with orange then used a toothpick to draw the chocolate into the orange. I did have trouble with the wings “sagging” on the cupcakes, afterwards (of course) I thought HEY! I should have used mini pretzel sticks stuck into the cupcake on each side!
I like the double boiler method better as well, but I was just following the directions to microwave it. Sometimes I think it’s best just trust your instincts though. That’s a great idea about the pretzel sticks, I bet that would work better than chocolate chips.
I am trying these cupcakes out for my husband’s Grandma’s 80th Birthday party tomorrow! She loves butterflies, I think she is going to be super excited when she sees them!
Good luck, let me know how it goes and take pictures!
hello, i’ve read that darker colored chocolates are thicker when melted and no matter how much you heat them they wont get thinner. Paramount crystals can make it thinner when added to the melted chocolate. you can also use shortening or vegetable oil. start with a teaspoon and add more if needed. The white streaks has to do with the storage of the chocolate. Its okay to eat.