Pretty Little Butterfly Cupcakes

Make these Pretty Little Butterfly Cupcakes for a lovely mid-morning snack, or for a birthday party. Or a random Tuesday. 

I so MISS morning tea, done properly. It doesn’t seem to be much of a thing here in the US, but I live in hope that it eventually catches on.

Need convincing? What is “Morning Tea”?  Well, officially

A small meal or snack eaten between breakfast and lunch; a period of time set aside for this purpose, taken as a break from schoolwork, work, a conference, etc. 

Unofficially, It involves much sitting around, tea drinking, and eating of cakes.

Convinced yet?

Want to know something even better? There’s also such a thing as AFTERNOON TEA. Anything that potentially involves cake, gets a vote from me as valid, and essential.

When I lived in Brisbane (Australia), there was this little place I liked to stop by and grab a mid morning treat – and I almost always went for a butterfly cupcake. Fluffy cupcakes with “proper filling” aka, not frosting, topped with sprinkles. Yes please!

I can imagine these being super popular at birthday parties. Just change up the colors on the sprinkles and the cupcake liners, and you can pretty much match any theme needed.

My little boys LOVE Butterfly Cupcakes – they love pulling off the wings (sounds so psychotic, but it is about the cake, people the CAKE), and then using them to scoop out the filling. They then devour the rest of the cake. It’s a PROCESS.

The concept behind Pretty Little Butterfly Cupcakes isn’t exactly complex:

• Bake vanilla cupcakes.
• Carefully cut out a little circle.
• Chop the circle of cake in half.
• Fill the hole in the cupcake with thick, sweetened whipped cream, and add the pieces of the cut out circle to the top to resemble butterfly wings.
• Add sprinkles. And powdered sugar.
• Ta daaaaa!!

The key here really is to not use frosting. WHIP SOME CREAM WITH A LITTLE POWDERED SUGAR, FOLKS!!

The real question is…. will you share?

Want more cake? Of course you do!

5 from 1 vote

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Pretty Little Butterfly Cupcakes

Make these Pretty Little Butterfly Cupcakes for a lovely mid-morning snack, or for a birthday party. Or a random Tuesday. 

Course Dessert

Cuisine Australia, New Zealand

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Decorating time 10 minutes

Total Time 28 minutes

Servings 12

Calories 308 kcal

Author Kylee

Ingredients

For the Vanilla Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup milk

For the Sweetened Whipped Cream

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 Tbs powdered sugar

Serving

• 1 Tbs sprinkles
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions

For the Vanilla Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Line a 12 well cupcake pan with paper liners. In your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and a very pale yellow color.

3. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Tops should be lightly browned, and spring back when touched.

4. Add the vanilla, milk and the eggs (one at a time) beating well. Sift together the flour and baking powder.

5. Fold the flour mixture into the batter, until just combined. Portion the batter into the paper liners evenly. 

6. Transfer to a cooling rack, and cool completely before decorating.

For the Sweetened Whipped Cream

1. In a medium sized bowl, sprinkle the powdered sugar over the top of the heavy whipping cream.

2. Beat until stiff peaks form, but don't go too far and make it butter!

Assembly

1. Using a sharp knife cut a circle (about the size of a quarter) out from the of each cupcake. 
   

2. Cut the tops in half and set aside. 

3. Pipe whipped cream into each cupcake hole,

4. Finish the butterfly cakes by placing two cake pieces over the cream to create wings.

5. Sprinkle with sprinkles and dust with powdered sugar.

6. Devour.