Flowers and Butterflies

Cupcake surprise

Prepare a half-quantity of the basic cupcake batter and colour it with pink food colouring. Mix well and then bake in large paper cookie cups until done. (You need to make 10 pink cupcakes.) Leave to cool completely and then remove the paper cups. Cut each cupcake in half horizontally. Using cookie cutters, cut out 10 stars and 10 butterflies (or shapes of your choice). The shapes must be smaller than the paper cookie cups so they can stand upright when placed inside the paper cups.
Make a full quantity of basic cupcake batter (to make 20 cupcakes). Make a ‘centre’ mark on the outside of the paper cookie cups and place the pink cupcake shapes in the centre of the paper cups, in line with the mark. Pour in the cupcake batter, making sure the pink shapes are completely covered. Bake until done and then leave to cool completely.
Spread the cupcakes with butter icing and sprinkle with hundreds and thousands. Decorate with your choice of sugar paste flowers and butterflies.
To serve, halve some of the cupcakes vertically, cutting through the centre, to reveal the surprise inside.

MAKES 20

Spring cones

Fill the ice-cream cone with a variety of small sweets.
Fill a piping bag with green butter icing. Using a star nozzle, pipe a strip of icing around the edge of the Marie biscuit and press the iced biscuit onto the open end of the ice-cream cone to seal the sweets inside. Set aside until the icing hardens.
Using butter icing, pipe twirling stems and leaves on the outside of the cone. Attach the sugar paste flowers. Cut off the tip of the cone, add a small blob of icing and place a sugar paste butterfly on top. Set aside until the icing hardens.

MAKES 10

Wild flowers

Spread the green butter icing over the Marie biscuits. Place a round sweet in the centre of each biscuit and arrange other sweets around the outside, to create flowers.

MAKES 10

Marshmallow blooms

Insert a lollipop stick into each marshmallow (make sure it goes in about 1.5 cm deep).
Melt the coloured chocolate in the microwave. Dip half of a marshmallow into the chocolate, then hold it upside down so the excess chocolate can drip off. Make six of these.
Place the sugar paste flowers and butterflies on top before the chocolate sets.
Thread the remaining marshmallows, two at a time, onto the wooden skewers. Hold them over a sheet of wax paper and use a fork to drizzle melted chocolate back and forth over the marshmallows. Place sugar paste flowers and butterflies on top before the chocolate sets.
Set aside until the chocolate has set completely.

MAKES 10

Flower lollipops

Roll out the different colours of fondant. For each lollipop, cut out two circles the same size as the lollipops, five smaller circles for the petals and a circle for the centre.
Attach the two large circles to either side of the lollipop, pressing the edges together to enclose it completely. Attach the five circles in a flower shape and place one circle in the centre, as shown. Use a little water if the fondant doesn’t stick.

MAKES 10

Butterfly lollipops

Roll out the different colours of fondant. For each lollipop, cut out two circles the same size as the lollipops, as well as two smaller circles for the wings. Shape these smaller circles into heart shapes and trim off the pointed end.
Attach the two large circles to either side of the lollipop, pressing the edges together to enclose it completely. Shape some fondant for the butterfly’s body and head and attach them to the centre of the lollipop. Attach the wings on either side of the body and decorate with small circles. Use a little water if necessary if the fondant doesn’t stick.

MAKES 10

Mini 3D-butterfly bites

Print a selection of colourful butterflies onto a sheet of edible icing. Cake shops and specialist bakeries can do this for you.
Cut out the butterflies. Roll out the white fondant and brush lightly with a little water. Attach the butterflies to the fondant and cut around the shape. Fold a piece of wax paper in half, place it in an open magazine and sprinkle with cornflour. Carefully arrange the butterflies in the fold so they dry with their wings slightly lifted. Leave until the fondant is completely dry and hard.
Melt the coloured chocolate in the microwave and spread it over the biscuits. Place a butterfly in the centre of each biscuit and set aside until the chocolate has set.

MAKES ± 50

Colourful Rice Krispies bites

Prepare the Rice Krispies squares mixture as per the recipe, turn it out onto wax paper and press flat. When it has set, use the cookie cutters to cut out flower and butterfly shapes.
Roll out different colours of fondant and cut out matching flower and butterfly shapes, as well as small circles for the centre of the flowers. Using a little glacé icing, attach the fondant shapes to the Rice Krispies shapes, and place the circles in the centre of the flowers. Shape bodies for the butterflies from a contrasting colour of fondant and attach to the centre of the butterfly shapes. If the fondant doesn’t stick, use a little water if necessary.
Brush the flower centres with edible glitter.

MAKES 10

Quick butterflies

Melt the chocolate in the microwave.
Trim the pointed ends of the heart-shaped marshmallows, to make ‘wings’. Place a small drop of melted chocolate on the trimmed side of the marshmallows and attach one to either side of the chocolate-coated liquorice ‘body’.
Set aside until the chocolate has set.

MAKES 10

Butterfly twirls

Insert a lollipop stick into a marshmallow twirl.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave.
Pour some chocolate on the marshmallow where the stick is inserted, to hold it in place, and let the chocolate drip down the side of the marshmallow. Position a sugar paste butterfly on the soft chocolate, up against the stick.
Set aside until the chocolate has set.

MAKES 10

Butterfly balls

Fill a piping bag with the green butter icing. Using a large star nozzle, pipe some icing onto the mini biscuit. Place a bubblegum-centre ball in the centre of the biscuit.
Pipe an icing ‘leaf’ at the base of the ball and attach a sugar paste flower. Add another dab of icing at the top and attach a sugar paste butterfly.
Set aside until the icing hardens.

MAKES 10

Flower fingers

Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Dip the finger biscuits three-quarters of the way into the melted chocolate. Hold the biscuits upside down briefly to allow excess chocolate to drip off, then set aside on wax paper until the chocolate is nearly set.
Before the chocolate sets, make flower shapes with the chocolate buttons, pressing them down lightly. Set aside on wax paper until the chocolate has set completely.

MAKES 10