Step-by-step recipes, designs and color pics of the easiest (and cutest) birthday cakes for boys and girls
Serves 8 to 10
Ingredients:
- 1 (9-inch) round cake
- 1 can (16 oz) vanilla frosting
- Purple food coloring*
- Granulated white sugar
- 8 purple gumdrops
- 8 yellow gumdrops
- Yellow and purple Spree candies
- Yellow and green M&M's Minis
- 6 yellow M&M's
- 5 green gumdrops
- 1 green Twizzler
*If you can't find purple food coloring, mix red and blue food coloring together.
What you'll need:
- A bread knife
- A serving platter
- 1 resealable sandwich-size plastic bag (Ziploc)
- A cutting board or a clean work surface
Trimming the cakes:
- Using a bread knife, cut the cake in half along the diameter to make 2 half circles. Cut a 1 ½-inch triangular notch from both cut sides, 2 ½ inches from the bottom (see template). Discard scraps.
- Transfer cake to a serving platter, putting the curved edges of the cake up against each other to form the butterfly wings.
For the dark-purple and light-purple frosting:
- Spoon ½ cup of the vanilla frosting into a bowl. Add enough food coloring to tint the frosting a dark purple. Spoon the dark-purple frosting into a resealable plastic bag.
- Add a smaller amount of purple food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it a lighter shade of purple. Spread the light-purple frosting over the butterfly cake and make smooth.
- Snip a very small corner from the bag of dark-purple frosting. Pipe an outline of dark-purple frosting along the edges of the butterfly wings, as pictured.
For the butterfly-wing design:
- Spread the granulated sugar onto a cutting board or a clean work surface. Press 4 of the purple gumdrops together and roll out.
- Cut the rolled-out purple gumdrops into a large teardrop shape, as pictured. Repeat with the remaining purple gumdrops so you have two matching teardrop shapes.
- Press the yellow gumdrops together in pairs. Roll out each pair of gumdrops until flat. Then cut out two 2-inch circles, two 1 ½-inch circles, and two 1-inch circles.
- Arrange the gumdrop cutouts, M&M's, and Spree candies as pictured.
For the butterfly's body and antennae:
- Decorate the top of the cake with the cut gumdrops and the candies as shown (see photo).
- For the butterfly's body, arrange the green gumdrops in a line along the center where the wings meet. Cut the green licorice twist in half lengthwise and arrange as the antennae.
Cake Anatomy:
Cake Cutout:
