"Hello, Cupcake" Monarch Butterfly Cupcakes

So...last Thursday, one of my very best friends (Hi, Megan!) turned 23.  We've known each other since high school and we lived together in college for 2 years.  She is now married and we both currently live in the same town where we went to college.  I don't know how much longer we'll both be living here, but I do know that when we leave, I'm going to miss her severely.  We both love to bake, so I thought I would make her something special for her birthday, and the "Hello, Cupcake" book I received for Christmas gave me plenty of ideas.

There are so many adorable ideas in this book, but I knew when I saw the monarch cupcakes, I just had to make them for Megan.  Butterflies have a special meaning for her family, so that was my inspiration.  This was my first attempt at making such an "outside of the box" cupcake, but it certainly won't be the last.

First, I gathered the edible ingredients for the cupcakes.  You'll need a boxed cake mix, food coloring, canned chocolate frosting, canned vanilla frosting, M&M's, dark cocoa chocolate melts, and candy melts in the color of your choice.

P.S. The "cast of character" shots are an ode to The Pioneer Woman, one of my favorite bloggers.  I LOVE Ree.

Next, I drew the outline for the butterfly wings and the antennae on sheets of paper.  Mine definitely weren't perfect, and they don't have to be!

Next, I put the outlines under sheets of wax paper and melted the candy melts in plastic bags until they were liquid.  Then I just snipped a small corner off the bags and began trying to make these things!  And let me tell you, these were not made without some difficulty and practice.

First, I snipped too large of a hole in the bag of orange candy melts, so I had to struggle with the orange melts oozing out of the bag too quickly during the entire process.  Next, the hole I snipped in the bag of chocolate melts was too small and I busted my cheap plastic bag because of all the pressure I built up in the bag!  So, my advice to you here:  if you use this method during any kind of baking, buy quality plastic bags!  Haha.

The process of drawing the butterflies SOUNDS simple, but it definitely took a little time for me to learn how to properly control the bags and steady my hands enough to make smooth outlines.  I recommend sitting at a surface where there is enough room for elbow support.

Basically, I outlined the wings with chocolate, filled in the middles with the colored melts, and then dragged a toothpick from the outside of the wings toward the middle.

Right after I completed a butterfly, I placed some sugar pearls on the tops of the wings.

After I finished all of these painstakingly cute butterflies, I baked the cupcakes and frosted them with tinted icing.  A tip I learned from a cake decorating class I took a while ago:  for boxed cake mixes, use a mixture of sour cream and buttermilk (or just buttermilk) in place of the water called for on the box and add one extra egg to the mix.  The cupcakes are much more moist and delicious with these changes!  Also, I attained a more uniform cupcake size than usual from a tip in the "Hello, Cupcake" book:  pipe the cake batter into the baking cups using a plastic bag.  However, I have tried this before and the bag burst open, so use quality plastic bags.  I've already said that, haven't I? :)

Finally, I assembled the butterflies using M&M's for wing support and piped on the butterfly body with chocolate frosting.

As you can see, the butterflies aren't perfect (they definitely are in the book), but Megan thought they turned out lovely, and that's what really matters to me. :)

I also edged some of the pink frosted cupcakes in sugar pearls.  I thought they looked classy! 

Speaking of classy...right after devouring a few of these cupcakes, we had a particularly sophisticated birthday dinner for Megan at a restaurant none of us had ever been to.  It was one of the best meals I've ever had!  Maybe that's what my next blog will be about.  Blogging with pictures is definitely more difficult than I thought it would be, but I hope I'll get the hang of it!

Hope you enjoyed the post...maybe now you'll try something that is a bit of challenge for you, too!