Happy times with kids call for cheerful cupcakes. Easier to serve than cake, cupcakes require no slicing, no plates, and no forks -- and every child gets her fair share of icing.
These sweet treats start as Chocolate Cupcakes or Vanilla Cupcakes iced with Swiss Meringue Buttercream -- perfect for spreading in thin layers or sculpting into thick mounds (and licking from the bowl).
The cupcakes can be baked a week ahead and frozen, but decorate them no more than a day before serving. Set up an assembly line, and put kids in charge of affixing candy eyes, gumdrop cheeks, and other trimmings. Pack the cupcakes in a shallow plastic container, and stuff crumpled waxed paper in between. Then dole them out and watch kids marvel for a second before opening wide!
Butterfly Cupcake How-To
Come April, pretzel-winged butterflies take flight; their bodies -- piped dots of blue buttercream -- end in candy-coated- chocolate heads and licorice antennae.
This was a fun idea for my daughter to take to her classmates in celebration of her 5th birthday. We made a few revisions to the recipe in order to make it a little easier for the kids to help, but I thank you for the inspiration to make such a pretty little cupcake. Her class loved them. I referenced your site on my blog regarding the cupcakes via http://testingtrendy123.blogspot.com/2013/01/strawberry-butterfly-cupcakes.html.
I made these a few years ago. They were adorable!
Turned out pretty nice!
@wilsonnb I used the swiss buttercream recipe suggested and the pretzels stayed up beautifully!
@RDudekScott How "Martha Stewart" of you! :)
I hand-dipped the pretzels in white chocolate and put purple sprinkles on them, pink m&m candy heads and lavender icing for my daughter's birthday. Such a hit!
How do you get the pretzels to stand up like that? Won't they fall down into the icing?
where do you find black licorice? is there anything else you can use for the antennas?
These cupcakes turned out really cute. I used skittles instead of chocolate candies and it was really yummy. I think they would look great with white, yogurt covered pretzels too. Great idea! Thanks.
I made these the night before and found that the pretzels got soft over night. I'd recommend either assembling these last minute or using chocolate covered pretzels so they stay crunchy.
This has to be one of the cutest cupcake ideas I have seen for kids. This looks so easy and even more fun. I will be sure to feature this and other ideas on my next post for all the many unique cupcakes for kids.
T2 | www.cupcakeideasforyou.com
I thought it worked great to cover the pretzels with colored white chocolate. If I ever do this again, I may add colored sugar sprinkles to the pretzels, too. Also, I used a blueberry for the head instead of the m
Great idea Julie! Different colored white chocolate covered pretzels would be great! I wonder if they sell like that? If not, could make 'em.
Great idea!
These are cute cupcakes. When I do make these, I'll use chocolate-covered pretzels (white or dark) instead of plain.