Flower Cake with Edible Butterflies - A Decorating Tutorial

I made this butterfly and flower cake for an eight-year-old girl's birthday. The idea was to make something girly and slightly animated given her age. So I came up with the polka dot edible butterflies and simple fondant flowers. To complete the cake, I adorned it with a large, glittering, eye-catching number '8' topper.

Flower cake for 8th birthday

This was a 2 tier cake. I covered it entirely in fondant. The decorations are mostly fondant too, except for the 3D butterflies which were made using royal icing. I must say, it was a fun cake to make, and the number topper really made it for the cake!

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How to Make a Flower Cake with Edible Butterflies

Main supplies for the butterfly and flower cake:

• Cake - It was a two-tier round cake measuring 6 inches and 8 inches in diameter. Both cakes were with an approximate height of 6 inches. I used my butter pound cake recipe for the cakes. I multiplied the recipes by 1.5 times so that each tier was 6 inches high (my recipes are calculated for cakes of 4 inches height). Each tier consisted of 3 layers of cakes.
• Buttercream - I used buttercream to sandwich the cake layers as well as to coat the cakes before covering them with fondant. Click here for my buttercream recipe.
• Fondant - This is a fondant covered cake. I used Satin Ice fondant, covered the top tier in Satin Ice Baby Blue fondant, and the bottom tier in white fondant tinted with Wilton Juniper Green gel food paste. 
• Black food marker - I used this to make the butterflies flying line on the top tier of the cake.
• Purple satin ribbon - I purchased this from a local craft shop and used it to cover the sides of the cake board.
• Fondant flowers and leaves - these were handmade. I have a separate tutorial page on how to make these flowers. Click here to learn more.
• Butterflies - These are entirely edible and were made using royal icing. I have a separate tutorial on how to make these. Click here to for the step-by-step tutorial on how to make these butterflies.
• Number 8 topper - I made this with fondant and glitter dust. Click here for the tutorial on how to make 3d standing number toppers.
• Tappit alphabet cutters - I used the funky font alphabet cutters for the birthday girl's name on the cake board. And I have also put together a page with detailed instructions on how to use the Tappit cutters. Click here to learn more. 

How to assemble the cake:

• I made the butterflies and the number topper a few days ahead. These need time to set and harden. Hence I made them in advance so that they were nice and dry when I assembled the cake.
• A day before the delivery, I baked the cakes, layered, filled and crumb coated them and covered them with blue and green fondant. 
• I then stacked them on top of one another using bubble straws.

The flowers

• I started with the flowers and this was how I made them (click on the image below for step by step tutorial):

Pretty flowers on the cake

• To make sure the flowers were placed in equal intervals all around the cake, I first measured the diameter of the cake and then divided the number such that I get equal intervals. I marked the intervals on the cake and used it as a guide to position the stems and flowers.

The stem and leaves

• I started with the stems and leaves and finally added the flowers. 
• After the flowers, I decorated the cake board. Since the cake had a garden theme with butterflies and flowers on it, I did pebbles walkway effect for the cake board. This is a very easy technique but produces very real pebbles walkway effect. Click on the image below or this link to learn how I made the pebbles walkway.

• Next, I attached the number topper on the flower cake. Click on this link to learn how I made the 3d standing number cake topper. 

The edible butterflies

• And then the butterflies went on. I positioned them as if they were flying towards the top of the cake. The butterflies were attached with royal icing (stiff consistency). I held them in place for a few seconds. And I made sure I did not move that cake for a good 20 minutes after all the butterflies have been attached. This is to allow the royal icing to set and hold the butterflies in place.

• Next were the flowers on the top of the cake. I used 2 small flowers and positioned them as shown:

• As for the birthday child's name, I decided to place it on the cake board. I used Tappit cutters for the alphabets and attached them to the cake board with shortening. And I added a butterfly at the end of the name. And then I wrapped the sides of the cake board with purple ribbon.

The flower cake border

• The last two steps were the border for the first tier and the butterflies flying line. For the border, I pinched out small pieces of fondant in random sizes, shaped them with hand into round balls, and attached all around the border with shortening. 

• And finally, the butterflies flying line. I used a black food marker to draw the flying dots on the cake.

And that's that. My pretty butterflies and flower cake.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Pretty flower cake with orange and yellow royal icing butterflies

Happy Decorating!