Spring Butterfly Cupcakes

If you're not keen on making your own cupcakes, simply purchase some plain vanilla cupcakes and move on to Step 3 where you can decorate them yourself.

Mix the softened butter and sugar together in a large bowl. You can use an electric whisk or mix with a large spoon. Mix in the beaten eggs and then add the vanilla. When that's all well combined, fold in the flour, baking powder and lastly the milk. Combine all the ingredients until you have a nice, smooth cupcake mix.

I really recommend using the reusable silicone baking cups or cupcake cases which last and last. I've had mine for several years now and they're still like new and wash out well too.

Fill your baking cups or cases about 2/3rds full - not quite to the top because they will rise in your oven. Pop them on a baking tray and bake on Gas 4 (350°F / 177°C) for around 15-20 mins. When done, they should be a lovely golden brown color. Don't worry if the cupcakes have uneven tops and are not all uniform in size - these are gorgeous homemade (with love) cupcakes :)

This is my daughter's favorite part (and mine too if I'm honest) because buttercream frosting is just so good to eat.

Whisk the softened butter in a large bowl until it looks like extra thick whipped cream and then gradually beat in the confectioner's or icing sugar. Add in the vanilla essence, a small amount of coloring if you're adding this (I used green) and 2-3 tablespoons of milk. You're aiming for a very thick but spreadable consistency - it's not meant to be runny.

No fancy icing needed - just take a blunt knife or small palette knife and spread a generous amount of buttercream frosting to the top of each cupcake. Add some sprinkles or hundreds and thousands on top of the frosting. Then enjoy savoring what's left over in the bowl when you're done.

For these butterflies, I've roughly mixed equal portions of pale pink and baby blue ready to roll fondant icing which gives a dreamy, pink fluffy cloud look to the butterflies. You can stick to one color fondant or experiment with 2 or 3 colors.

Ready to roll fondant icing might feel sticky when you remove it from the packet. Put a light dusting of confectioner's or icing sugar on your worksurface, your rolling pin and your hands to remove the stickyness. You only need a small amount of fondant to make enough small butterflies to decorate your cupcakes - unless you want to go mad and put several butterflies on each cake.

Roll the fondant until it's around 5mm thick and use a small butterfly cutter to cut out as many butterflies as you have cupcakes. Place them onto a baking tray or baking paper.

This step is optional but I like to add a little extra detail by adding in a body to the middle of the butterfly. There are two easy ways to get this look. Either pipe some icing or melted baking chocolate down the middle OR do what I've done here and roll out some very thin black or brown fondant icing. Just roll it out as if you're making a sausage shape with Play Doh but as thin as a shoe lace.

You stick these on by cutting the rolled pieces to the length of the butterfly's body, wet this part on the butterfly with water (a clean or unused thin paintbrush is handy) and press the body detail on. The water sticks the two pieces of fondant together.

Pick up a finished fondant butterfly and gently press the wings from behind as if you're closing a book. Not too far, but try and shape the wings a little with this movement so the butterfly looks less static. Then pop it on top of an iced cupcake. So long as your frosting hasn't gone hard, the butterfly will stick to the top of your cupcake.