It seems like every cake I make is my 'favorite cake so far.' When I finished this one, that was definitely the case. This was for my supervisor's daughter's birthday and I was a little apprehensive about making it. Mainly just because I had no clue how to put brightly colored butterflies on a cake. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with this one, and my original plan was to make butterflies that would lay flat on the cake. The more I thought about that the less I liked the idea.
About two days before the cake was due, I had the idea to make 3D butterflies out of fondant, and I bought a butterfly shaped cookie cutter, 'just in case.' It turned out that the cookie cutter I bought was a great investment - I did end up using it for this cake, to make the wings of the butterflies.
I bought some Wilton brand fondant at the store and was a little worried about it after reading so many discussion threads about how bad it tastes. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe Wilton re-formulated their recipe - I have no idea. What I do know, though, is that it didn't taste anything at all like I was expecting and I actually thought it was pretty good. And it was so much easier to work with than the Marshmallow Fondant I had played around with before. Oh, and did I mention that it was 1000% easier to work with and didn't leave a gooey and sticky mess in my mixer bowl or on my table? That, in itself, has made me a fan of store-bought fondant. Yes, I'm lazy in the kitchen. This should come as no surprise, people. :)
The order was for a yellow cake with chocolate frosting with brightly colored butterflies on top. Simple enough. I made Chocolate Swiss Buttercream and sculpted the butterflies from fondant. I threw in a couple of flowers that I cut with a daisy cookie cutter and set in a muffin tin to dry so they, too, would be three dimensional. I used royal icing to attache the butterfly cut-outs to the bodies that I had made, and then colored some of it green to use for the grass on the cake and around the border. So far, so good.
While in the baking aisle of the grocery store one day I found the edible neon colored glitter gel and grabbed a box of it thinking it may come in handy, sometime. This was the perfect time to test that theory. I decorated the butterfly wings and bodies with the edible gel and let everything dry overnight. I needed to have the cake delivered at noon on a Saturday, and managed to have everything finished before going to bed on Friday night, aside from placing the standing butterflies on the cake. Saturday morning, before heading out to deliver the cake, I put the butterflies in place, and filled in some more 'grass' around them to give them some extra support. When I delivered the cake, the birthday girl came outside to see it and jumped around squealing, "My cake! My cake!" Yes!! Another satisfied customer....maybe there's a chance I'll be successful at this one of the days, after all.
I really didn't run into any roadblocks making this cake - everything went so smoothly I was actually afraid that I had forgotten some crucial step or ingredient, or something. But no, aside from one of the butterflies just getting a little lazy and leaning into his neighbor on the trip over to the party, everything went great. You cannot imagine how pumped I was about that. I did learn a lesson from this cake though - as I do with every cake I make. The lesson here was that 3D fondant butterfly bodies, before having the wings attached to them, will be the brunt of alot of jokes if there are men around. Apparently they're not exactly worth of a PG rating before the wings are attached. Who knew? At any rate, it was a really fun cake to make, and seeing the expression on the birthday girl's cake totally made my day - and boosted my confidence for the next cake.
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