My niece Stephanie D asked me to help her make cupcakes for her 14th birthday. We wanted to do something that would let us spend some creative time together and also let the other kids get in on the fun at some point. We decided to do the butterflies because I knew we could make the wings ahead of time, and then bake the cupcakes, frost them, and assemble the butterflies later with the other kids. We got our supplies together and found some quiet time in the kitchen to get creative. The first few wings came out a little clumpy and I knew we hadn't heated the melting wafers enough. We tossed them in the microwave again and when we got the texture of the chocolate wafers just right the wings really started to flow. Steph really liked blending the brown and orange and became very adept at using the toothpick to pull the colors together. It took us less than an hour to make all the wings for 36 butterflies, more than enough for our 24 cupcakes. Later all the other kids joined in frosting the cupcakes, piping the bodies, and assembling the wings on the cupcakes. We all had a blast and the cupcakes on the platters were as pretty as a picture.
Take a look!


Stephanie D. with her beautiful butterfly wings



Sarah, Stephanie, Thomas, Anna, and Lawrence (l to r) and the wings of the butterflies.


Happy Birthday Stephanie,
Keep on Cupcaking!
Alan