Last week in the grocery store A.P. saw a magazine cover with one of those super cute baking ideas that seem innocent enough…
It was simply a batch of cupcakes (OK, I can do that) with white frosting (hey! I think I have white frosting in the pantry!) and ’spring things’ on them like bees, and butterflies made of candy. I told him yes, we could make some as a suprise for Daddy when he gets home from St. Louis.
Upon closer inspection, though, it turns out that I needed some bizarre candy item that is apparently sold nowhere in the Midwest to make the cute little bees. I also needed to learn how to filet a gumdrop in order to achieve the desired ‘butterfly wing’ effect.
My kids were absolutely not accepting a perfectly reasonable alternative: a butterfly shaped cake like the one we had eaten at a birthday party the day before. The reasoning? “That’s for a girl”. Of course. Only butterfly cupcakes are masculine enough for Daddy.
I managed to find enough candy at Horrocks that I thought might work. I simply cut gummy worms in half for the body, and used fruit candy slices for wings, then stuck a couple of licorice pieces in for antannae. Here is the result:
A.P. did great with these, and Maybelle tried to make ’smiley face butterflies’ which I thought was really sweet. 
And of course, the man for whom the cupcakes were made was a very gracious recipient. A.P. was so excited he made him walk into the house with his eyes shut for the suprise. We all sat down for our first meal (er, snack) together in a week. He promptly went to ‘rest’ after his long week, but at least the cupcakes were good.
9 Comments
February 27, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Your decorating ideas look so much easier than filletting gumdrops (which I’ve done and I hate).
Thanks for the fun idea.
February 27, 2008 at 4:54 pm
very cute and easy to make (at least from what I can tell)…kids would have fun making them…and of course eating them!
February 27, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Oooh, that is creative!
I am never brave enough to attempt those magazine. The kids would find me banging my head into a nail before it was all over.
Whenever I have to make a cake they are only allowed to watch from the dining room. LOL
February 28, 2008 at 1:32 am
I see such creative cupcakes and they amaze me, I’m not someone who can see great art in a piece of cake–probably because I’m usually too busy stuffing it in my mouth
February 28, 2008 at 12:23 pm
My girls would love making those pretty upcakes. I love them.
February 28, 2008 at 4:28 pm
You visited my blog and asked about using a liner with that cake. I usually use a liner, I love them. On this you would not be able to scrape out all the chocolate pudding that well. It really was pretty easy clean up. Thanks for stopping by.
February 28, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Poor Mr. Binder was up all night getting his butt kicked in Wii Bowling.
March 1, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Another version of the butterfly cupcake that I’ve made is to use mini pretzels as the wings and pipe icing down the center to make the body.
March 4, 2008 at 1:17 am
oh yummy..thanks for sharing them…have a great day.