Butterfly Cupcakes

Hi! My name is Emily and I blog all the things (but mostly food…and mostly desserts) over at Is This Really My Life. I absolutely love when Crafting Chicks put together an awesome series like this summer’s Mother Hen’s Summer Survival Guide. And then I love it even more when they ask if I’d like to participate.

Heck to the yes!

Don’t tell, but I pretend the Crafting Chicks have adopted me. All the time.

I was super excited to come up with a recipe to go with a garden theme. I was pretty sure it would be cupcakes because my daughter’s birthday is in August and she’s all about the cupcakes. But what kind of garden-y cupcakes would an 8-year-old love? Butterfly cupcakes, of course!

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Butterfly Cupcakes
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You know what I love most about these butterfly cupcakes? They’re crazy easy even if you make the cupcakes and frosting from scratch. For this batch I used a boxed mix because my homemade cupcakes tend to sink (I have yet to get them right) and no one was the wiser. I paired them with my favorite homemade vanilla frosting, which I colored a light blue for the sky.

The pretzel wings (white fudge Flipz + colored sugar) took only a couple minutes to make and are seriously tasty— I highly recommend making a few extra so you can snack on them while assembling the cupcakes. Or you can take the extras and dip them in the leftover frosting. I won’t judge.

To make the wings, simply lay out your sets of pretzels and lightly mist with water. Gently sprinkle colored sugar over the pretzels covering them as best you can. Let dry before placing on cupcakes.

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Butterfly Cupcakes
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For the butterfly body, I found these super cute colored pearls at my local grocery store. They are Celebration by SweetWorks and were packaged individually. But you can use any pearls or mini candy or fancy frosting tip if you’d like.

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Butterfly Cupcakes
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I was hoping I could prop up the wings a bit but the pretzels were too heavy and the frosting too fluffy, but I think they still turned out adorable. Livi was super happy with them, and that’s all that really matters.

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Butterfly Cupcakes
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Butterfly Cupcakes
Makes approx. 2 dozen.

Ingredients

1 box rainbow chip (aka funfetti) cake mix plus ingredients to make cupcakes OR your favorite homemade recipe
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
2 T milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
3 to 4 drops blue food coloring
48 white chocolate-dipped pretzels (I used white fudge Flipz)
Colored sugar
Colored pearls
Black or brown frosting for the antennae

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Directions

For cupcakes, mix and bake cake mix according to package directions. Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.
While cupcakes are baking and cooling, prepare your sparkly wings. Lay the pretzels flat side down on paper towels (see photo above) and lightly mist with water. Sprinkle colored sugar on the pretzels covering them as best you can. Let dry before placing on cupcakes.
For frosting, beat the butter on medium speed for about 2 minutes until creamy. Add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, salt and food coloring and beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Add more sugar if frosting is too thin, more milk if too thick. Frost cooled cupcakes.
To assemble butterflies, place colored pearls in a line down center of cupcakes. Attach a set of wings as shown and finish them off by piping antennae on the top.

If you love cupcakes as much as I do, I’ve shared quite a few cupcake recipes on my site including these seasonal peach cobbler cupcakes. Mmm…

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