How to Make an Easy Butterfly Cake

When I’m not testing out new recipes in the Mr. Food Test Kitchen to share with all of you at home, I enjoy baking for the neighborhood kids. I’ve lived in my neighborhood for years, and I’ve gotten to watch most of the kids grow up. They’re all very sweet and always say ‘hi’ and wave when they’re playing outside.

Because they’re so sweet, I like taking the time to make them something sweet on their birthdays!

This was an ice cream cake I made and decorated for Madison, who was turning 9 years old and loves ice cream! I also stuffed an ice cream cone piñata with all of her favorite sweets (and some birthday cash!).

This past weekend, it was little Sydney’s turn to be the birthday girl. Sydney was turning 10 years old. Her favorite thing right now is butterflies. So I knew right away that I needed to make her a butterfly cake.

I wanted to spend most of my time decorating Sydney’s cake just right, so I took a shortcut method and used prepared cake-mix to bake two 9” rounds of vanilla cake.

After cutting both cakes in half, I put one half on top of the other, using icing to stick them together. These were going to be my wings! I placed both halves on a board covered in aluminum foil, leaving space for the body, and then frosted the outside of my wings white (You can frost in any color you want your wings to be!).

Decorating the wings was the best part, because I got to be as creative as I wanted to be! I bought pretty pastel-colored candies and chocolates, and just went to town! It doesn’t matter if the colors and shapes aren’t symmetrical on both sides, so long as you cover as much space as possible.

For the body of the butterfly, I used two peanut butter cups (Reese’s) and two long candy bars (Butterfingers) held together with chocolate frosting. Two candies for the eyes, two pieces of uncooked pasta for the antennae, and voila!

Needless to say, little Sydney absolutely loved her cake!

If you know or have a child who loves butterflies, this is an easy cake to make them for their birthday. They may even want to help with the decorating!