Butterfly Cupcake Cake

Right before I had my second child, I got it in my head that I wanted to bake cakes and make icing from scratch. As I got further into it and the more pregnant I got, I lost interest as I do with a lot of things it seems. Well this past weekend was my niece and brother-in-law's birthday party, so I volunteered myself for the making of the cake! I always preferred making cupcakes, so I decided to try a cupcake cake!

I couldn't decide if I wanted to do Chocolate cake or Vanilla, so I did both! The Chocolate recipe turned out great, the Vanilla wasn't my favorite. Well for another birthday, a friend of mine and I made tie-dye cupcakes and I really wanted to do that again. I seperated the batter into two bowls and colored each with Wilton's icing dye. I'm not sure about that but it worked! Then spooned in each color layering them.
And baked for the appropriate time.

After they were baked and cooled, I made a Buttercream Icing. I have decided that the amount and consistency of what I made was good for spreading NOT for fancy decorations, which was my original intention. But it kept melting off the sides if I made it too high, so I either need to tweak that recipe or give up icing making. I haven't decided yet!

Then I lined the cupcakes together to make the shape of a butterfly and decorated accordingly.

I was never great at writing with icing but I would say I did better then I have done in the past!

This was fun for me! I wouldn't want to do it for a living but I am glad I can do it for birthdays and other occasions. My kitchen just isn't set up for regular cake baking/decorating.