Butterfly Effect

My bestie's birthday just passed not too long ago and for that occasion, I decided to do something fun and colorful - like the person it was intended for.  And these butterflies turned out pretty colorful, didn't they? The idea for these dazzling beauties came from Hello, Cupcake! and I must say, I was pretty intimidated at first.  But as it turns out, if you can decorate a sugar cookie, you can make these butterflies.  I cheated a bit and used a squeeze bottle to draw everything onto the transparency film which was overlaid on hand-drawn templates. Just let the outline harden and flood with desired color. The antennae were simple "V's" that are inserted directly into the frosting.  For a more detailed look, you could probably go with a #2 wilton piping tip.  I used almond bark (candy melts also work) rather than chocolate for these and tinted to these vibrant colors. Remember to use oil-based gel candy coloring. Finally, white non-pareils were sprinkled on before the candy set.

See how nicely the frosting piped out? Do you know what the secret is? .... Wait for it.... wait for it.... it's swiss meringue buttercream! Thank you Martha. Once you try this, you'll never go back to confectionars sugar buttercream. In fact, you might say "Yeck!" and turn your head away in disgust when a co-worker dares to bring such a concoction in for an office birthday. Hypothetically speaking, of course. SWBC (yes, we've achieved an acronym-level relationship) tastes like ice cream bliss and it's worth the extra effort.

I made Ina Garten's lemon yogurt cake into cupcakes for this. I don't LOVE lemon cake, but you see, my bestie has this peculiar love affair with lemon and I had to oblige. It WAS her birthday, remember? Turns out, they were delish. They really really were. Even Miss Piggy wanted in...