Monarch Butterfly Birthday Cake

Tata's Monarch Butterfly Cake:

Milk Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Filling and Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

I received a special order for a Monarch Butterfly Birthday cake for a 4 year old's birthday.  This was a blast to make but I am not going to lie the MOST time consuming cake I have ever made with 3 hours of frosting and decorating and about 2 hours of additional prep.  But you can break this cake down over a few days.  Such as making the cake ahead of time, wrapping the layers in plastic wrap, and freezing them.  You can make the frosting ahead of time and you can break the decorating into two days: day 1 being the crumb layer and day 2 being the decorating.  Also you can adapt this cake to be any color/type of butterfly you'd like.  You can also simplify the cake by using your Vanilla Butter Cream as your filling and avoiding the extra step of making the Cream Cheese Filling.  But in my opinion the labor and effort this cake takes is well worth it!  And most importantly have fun! OR YOU CAN JUST ORDER ONE OF THESE CAKES OFF MY BLOG!!!

The beautiful birthday girl with her Monarch Butterfly Birthday Cake!!

First you will need to make your cake.  I use a German Chocolate recipe and substitute the German Chocolate for Milk Chocolate.  This recipe makes a denser, more rich, and easier to decorate cake.  If you want a lighter cake choose any basic chocolate cake recipe that is made with oil.  

Milk Chocolate Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Ingredients: 

4 oz milk chocolate (Chocolate chips work)

1/2 cup water

2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound unsalted butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 brown sugar

4 eggs separated

1 cup buttermilk**

**I make my own buttermilk.  It is super easy.  Pour milk into your 1 cup measuring cup and top with 1 TBS Lemon juice.  Let it sit 5 minutes.  It should curdle and wa-la you have buttermilk!

Directions for Milk Chocolate Cake:

Place your chocolate in a glass bowl.  Fill a saucepan with a couple of inches of water.  Put your glass bowl over this saucepan.  Heat over a medium heat until chocolate is silky and melted stirring often.  Set aside.

In a separate bowl sift together the cake flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a Kitchen Aid mixer cream together butter, vanilla, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Scrape the sides of the bowl then add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after every addition.  

Blend in melted chocolate.

Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk, alternating, until JUST combined (see above).  Move this mixture to another bowl and clean the bowl to beat your egg whites.

Add the egg whites to your mixing bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold the whites into your cake batter until well incorporated (see above).  

Grease and flour 2 (9 inch) cake pans.  Pour the batter evenly into the 2 (9 inch)  cake pans.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Stick a fork into the center of the cake after baking.  If the fork comes out clean it is done if not add more baking time.  Remove from oven to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.  

After the cake is completely cooled take your cakes out of the cake pans and wrap them individually in plastic wrap. 

Freeze your wrapped cake layers for at least a couple of hours or you can freeze them for up to a week before decorating. 

Next you will need to make your Cream Cheese Filling:

Cream Cheese Frosting:

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)

4 oz soft butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

4-6 cups powdered sugar

Directions:  Combine all ingredients.  Beat on med/high until creamy.  The frosting needs to be soft enough to spread.  So add 1 teaspoon at a time of milk/cream until you have your desired consistency.  Or add more powdered sugar if your frosting is too thin. 

Take out your frozen cake layers and remove the plastic.  Place one layer on a large cutting board.  Generously spread your cream cheese filling on top of it. Then place your other layer on top of the filling.  

Place the whole cake in the freezer for a least 2 hours.  Remove and now you are going to cut the cake to get your butterfly shape.  

You are basically cutting a "peace sign" look at the picture below for how to make your  cuts.

After cutting your butterfly shapes you can re-wrap the individual pieces and freeze them again to decorate a different day or you can do your crumb layer now.  

Next you are going to do your frosting crumb layer:

For the Crumb Layer:

You will need to make a basic Vanilla Butter cream frosting for your crumb layer.  A crumb layer is a base coat of frosting to prevent your finished product to have any crumbs in it.  The crumb layer also makes doing the final decorating a lot easier.  This layer will look rough and dirty!  The recipe that follows is just enough for your crumb layer so if you are going to do your final decorating the same day as your crumb layer double the Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting recipe. 

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting:

Ingredients: 

         2/3 Cup Soft Butter**

**If you want to use ALL butter that is fine.  Just substitute equal amounts of butter for the shortening.  

         1/3 Cup Shortening 

         1/2 teaspoon vanilla

         8 Cups powdered sugar

         5-8 TBS Heavy whipping cream or whole milk

Directions:  Combine all ingredients.  Beat on med/high until creamy.  The frosting needs to be soft enough to spread.  So add 1 teaspoon at a time of milk/cream until you have your desired consistency.  

Decorating is MUCH easier if your cake is frozen.  It is easiest to apply your crumb layer doing one piece at a time.  Basically you want to create a base coat on all edges and the tops of each piece.  Then return your cake pieces with their crumb coats to the fridge for at least 2 hours.  Your crumb coat will look like the picture below.

You are now ready to do your final assembling and decorating!!  If you didn't already double the Vanilla Butter Cream frosting make another batch now.  If you have any left over Cream Cheese Filling you can add it to your frosting. 

 Pull out your individual cake pieces and one at a time apply a generous layer of Vanilla Butter Cream making sure that all sides and the tops are completely covered with frosting.  Use a frosting knife to smooth out your frosting. You can see the difference in the picture below as to the crumb coat in the back and the finished product in the front.

You can buy decorating cake sheets or make your own.  I make my own.  I take a piece of cardboard and cover it with foil.   Next you will take your frosted pieces one by one and arrange them on your cake sheet in the shape of a butterfly.  You may have to "touch up" your frosting from the moving process.  See the picture below as a reference in how to lay out your butterfly.

Now the fun part!!! Decorate as you wish!  If you want to recreate my Monarch Cake you will need to make a batch of my Dark Chocolate Frosting.  But first start creating a color gradient with your colored sugars (See picture above for how to apply color gradient).  

Dark Chocolate Frosting:

Ingredients:

2 ¾ CUP POWERED SUGAR

6 TBS COCOA POWDER

6 TBS BUTTER-SOFT

5-6 TBS HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM

1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT

Using a mixer blend all INGREDIENTS.  Adding a Tbs at a time of whipping cream or milk to get your DESIRED consistency.  

Then use a fine tip in a frosting bag and pipe the wing designs on top of the colored sugars.  You can also apply some of your candies.  

Then fill in the designs on the wings with more of your colored sugars. Using your Dark Chocolate frosting go over all your lines once more.  And as you can see in the picture below I like to add extra detail to the edges of the wings so that my black frosting is also on the sides a bit.  Add the rest of your candy or decorations.

Once your butterfly is to your liking pipe some frosting to where all four pieces connect. This will provide something for the body of your butterfly to stick to.  Because of the colors for the Monarch I used 3 pieces black Licorice for the body of the butterfly.  Then the last step is to take the remainder of your Vanilla Butter Cream and pipe a design along all the edges of the bottom of the cake (see the picture above).  And for a finishing touch I sprinkle the edges of the cake with my yellow decorating sugar.  You can serve immediately or store the cake in your fridge.

Some ideas for decorations:

Skittles

Recces Pieces

M & M's

Colored Sugars 

Candy sticks

Licorice 

Dark Chocolate Frosting

Colored Frosting
Fresh fruit 

Now sit back and enjoy your cake!

Love, Tata!