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.
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!
Making the 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 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 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):
- 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.
Happy Decorating!
Leave a Reply