Butterfly birthday cake

By Gosia

Preparation time: 25min | Cooking time: 30min | Servings: 10-12

This year my daughter wanted a butterfly birthday party, so no wonder she got a butterfly birthday cake! I wanted to make her birthday cake kids-friendly and appealing for her little guests. I did some trials before making the actual cake. I couldn’t find the perfect recipe, so I ended up mixing a few different recipes to adjust all the ingredients, so the birthday cake was moist, not too sweet, had some fruits and a pink filling (special wish from my daughter!). That was not an easy task, but the result was really great and everyone loved it :)

The base of the recipe was a sponge cake that I soaked with vanilla tea. I used an easy-to-make raspberry pudding that I mixed with butter and sugar to make a pink filling. My daughter loves homemade whipped cream, so I made it to cover the cake. I used her favorite fruits for the birthday cake decoration.

Did you know that the sponge cake is thought to be one of the first of the non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest recorded sponge cake recipe dates from the 17th century?

Step1 Preheat the oven to 180 °C /360 °F. Separate yolks from eggs whites. Place the whites in a bowl, add a bit of sugar and vanilla sugar and whisk. Add sugar gradually and continue whisking until the egg whites are shiny and form stiff peaks. Then add egg yolks, cornstarch or potato starch, flour and baking powder and mix everything on the lowest speed. You can also use a spoon to mix everything gently. Place the baking paper on the bottom of a mold (20-23cm). Pour the cake preparation. Bake for 30-35 minutes. The cake is ready until a stick/toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Step2 While the cake bakes, prepare the filling and the whipped cream.

Filling: prepare the pudding following the instructions on the package you bought, BUT use less milk, so the pudding is thicker than usually. Let it cool. In a bowl, mix the melted butter with sugar, until it gets creamy. Add cooled pudding gradually and continue mixing. If the filling gets too thick, add a few drops of milk. Be careful not to add too much at once, as the filling can get too liquid. Make sure that butter and pudding are at room temperature.

Whipped cream: add whipping cream and sugar to a bowl and whip it using a mixer on medium speed. It is ready when soft peaks form – don’t over-whip the cream as it turns to butter!

Step3 Leave the cake in the mold to cool. When ready, use a knife and run it around inside the cake mold. Then open a mold, turn the cake upside down and take off the baking paper.

Step4 Divide the cake into there parts using a sharp knife. Then use a tea prepared in Step1 to soak two parts – you don’t need to soak the top of the cake. Spread the filling from Step2 on each part of the cake.

Step5 Cover the cake with the whipped cream from Step2. Place it in a fridge for around 1h and then cover with the remaining amount of whipped cream to make adjustments. Sprinkle the cake with desiccated coconut. The best is to leave the cake in the fridge over night and decorate the top just before serving.

Step6 Decorate the cake with fruits to make a nice butterfly. Start with blackberries to make the butterfly body. Use raspberries to outline the wings. Use strawberries and kiwi to decorate upper wings and orange to decorate lower wings. Use chocolate biscuit sticks and blueberries to make antennae. Enjoy!

Butterfly birthday cake