Butterfly Birthday

Chocolate and Butterflies

Every year I try to make a special cake for my mother's birthday. 

Every year, same thing... German Chocolate Cake. 

I posted the recipe I used  here on my blog if you are looking for a great one! 

I received a lot of emails after posting a picture of the cake asking how I made the butterflies so perfect. Well, there is something to be said for the flash of the camera reflecting and hiding some flaws, but overall, these are some fun little butterflies to make.

I start out by rolling a few pieces of gumpaste into a very elongated tear drop , insert some 20 gauge floral wire in the bottom of some and through the middle of others. Also, insert a couple white flower stamens in the top for antennae before it dries.

Mix some fondant with a considerable amount of gumpaste. I believe I use a 70 /30 mix for these. They need to dry very hard.

Once I have that mixed I load it in my clay extruder ( what an amazing little gadget that is!) 

I pipe out ropes, whatever size you want the thickness to be. Store in a ziploc bag until you are ready to use, they will dry FAST!

Pull one out , place it on a piece of wax paper and  shape it into one of 4 wing sections. pinch the top and bottom, then use your fingers to manipulate the shape you would like, repeat with a larger rope , repeat again if you would like, I only use 2 though.

 They will be starting to dry before you are done, gum glue these together in the center, then attach a white gumpaste body with gum glue on top. 

I let these dry over my flower formers to make the wings look as though they are " up". A couple I dry flat. You can be creative with the shaping and positioning.

These are fast and easy and look great!

For the tulips on the side of the cake I used a Wilton large leaf cutter for the leaves, used my extruder to pipe a thick rope of green fondant for the stem, and the small Wilton leaf cutter x's 3 to make the petals.