Happy Birthday #7
Friday, April 29th, 2011My granddaughter who lives 20 minutes away is celebrating her 7th birthday. She told me that she wanted a butterfly cake for her birthday. I showed her the Wilton butterfly shaped pan and also an assortment of fabric butterflies on wires that I had purchased at Michaels. She said that she wanted a “plain” cake with the fabric butterflies stuck into it.
That sounded easy. I asked her preference of color for the frosting. She thought for a moment and then took two crayons from a box of crayons. One was purple; the other, blue. She combined the two colors on a slip of paper and showed it to me. “This is the color that I want my frosting to be.” Gulp, so much for sounding easy.
I baked the cake in layer pans. By the way I always use Duncan Hines cake mixes. The little lady fancies white cake so I used Duncan Hines Classic White. I have a favorite buttercream frosting recipe that I have used for many years. It is from Land O Lakes. Okay, okay, yes, it does have f-a-t. There is butter and there is half and half. It is so-oo-oo good, and you only eat it a few times a year.
Best Buttercream Frosting
3/4 cup butter, softened 6 cups powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Beat butter in mixer at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar and salt alternately with half and half and vanilla, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Stir in corn syrup. Makes 3 cups.
Now to make the frosting resemble that hue of purple/blue my granddaughter had drawn for me. I used just the tiniest dab of Wilton Violet color paste and a couple of drops of liquid blue. I crossed my fingers and mixed. I hesitated to experiment further so we had what we had.
Before inserting the butterflies into the top of the cake I shortened the wire and covered it along with a toothpick support with aluminum foil. This way only a toothpick was being inserted into the cake. A few decorator frosting stars and pearlized-ivory sugar pearls were added, and voila, the cake.
I can’t wait to head out to her house for the party and to see her face when she sees her butterfly cake.
Keeping in the butterfly theme, here is her gift.
Do you know how difficult it is to find a butterfly, age-appropriate birthday card for your granddaughter? (I know, I know, sometimes I get carried away.) After visiting many shops, I did find a butterfly card. Little butterfly on the package. And the gift? A magnetic mosaic kit – one option is to make a butterfly.
I’m ready for cake.
Thanks for stopping by.