Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Butterflies

With one batch of cupcakes under my wing (HAH), I decided to give these monarch butterfly cupcakes a try. "Hello, Cupcake" gives you the stencil of the wings and antenna to trace with your piping bags. The wings and antennas are made from brown and orange chocolate wafers which I melted, then piped out over the stencil on wax paper. I then blended and designed the wings with a toothpick. After the wings were shaped I sprinkled white nonpareils on the tips of the wings for a more textured look. Once they dried, I delicately placed the chocolate pieces on the cupcakes. I also placed chocolate chips under the wings so that they could be propped up at an angle.


After the wings were attached to the cupcake I piped on the body of the butterflies with dark chocolate icing. YUM. As you will find, I LOVE dark chocolate. It's healthier for you too! Less fat, less calories, and only dark chocolate contains antioxidants and lowers blood pressure. So stick with the dark, I say.


 I found that the yellow cupcake was a good neutral color for the orange and black to stand out against. Looking back, a pale green also would have looked nice.

In the end, the final product looked great, especially on the cute cupcake stand I got for christmas that year. It really did look like a swarm of butterflies. And yum! the cupcakes and chocolate wafer butterflies were delish.

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