Pull Apart Butterfly Cupcakes Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 24 cupcakes. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• Stir 5 drops red food color and 5 drops yellow food color into vanilla frosting to make orange frosting; set aside.
• On large serving tray or cookie sheet covered with foil, arrange 24 cupcakes as shown in diagram. Frost center body of butterfly and antennae with chocolate frosting. (Push cupcakes together slightly to frost entire body and antennae, not just individual cupcakes.) Frost remaining cupcakes with orange frosting for wings. (Push cupcakes together slightly to frost entire wings, not just individual cupcakes.) Pipe chocolate frosting outline on wings, if desired. Decorate butterfly with candies and sugar. Store loosely covered.

Steps:

• For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Set the ice cream cones in the cups of in two 12-cup muffin pans so they stand upright.
• In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and 1 cup cold water. Beat on low speed just to combine, then increase the speed to high and beat until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Divide the mixture among the ice cream cones. Bake until the cupcakes rise above the edges of the cones and a tester inserted in the center of 1 comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks and cool completely.
• Set aside about 1/4 cup vanilla frosting in a small bowl. Put the remaining frosting in a clean mixer bowl and add about 1/2 teaspoon blue food coloring. Beat and continue to add food coloring, if necessary, to get a sea blue color.
• Dollop a tiny bit of frosting on the bottom of a cone (this will help anchor it to the serving tray) and then dollop a generous amount on top. Anchor the cone to the serving tray and repeat with the remaining cones, arranging them in a 4-by-6 cone grid, with the edges touching.
• Using an offset spatula, smooth the blue frosting across the tops of the cupcakes, adding more as necessary, so it appears as 1 layer and the individual cupcakes are no longer visible. Smooth the remaining blue frosting on the sides to cover the cupcakes but not the cones.
• Pat the graham cracker crumbs onto one half of the cake, creating a wavy pattern along one edge where the water meets the sandy beach. Put the reserved white frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a large leaf tip. Pipe the white frosting along the edge where the water and sand meet to make breaking waves.
• To decorate the beach half of the cake, arrange the blue rock candy just behind the breaking waves to create the crashing surf. Stick some beach umbrellas in the sand, making sure you stick them into the cakes and not the frosted spaces between them. Cut the taffy into beach towels and arrange some cookie bears on the towels on the beach. Arrange some piles of candy rocks on the beach.
• To make palm trees, sprinkle your work surface with a little sugar and roll or flatten the lime fruit slice candies. Cut into 5 palm leaves. (If you have time, let the leaves dry and harden for 1/2 hour or so, they will stick up straighter on the finished tree). Break the pretzel rod in half and stick the leaves on top to make a palm tree. Stick the tree into one of the cupcakes on the beach.
• Attach one end of the twist tie to a gummy candy fish and wrap the other end around the remaining half of the pretzel rod to make a fishing pole. Stick the pole in the sand and add a cookie bear as a fisherman.
• To decorate the ocean half of the cake, arrange gummy candy sea creatures in the water. Stick some cookie bears into gummy candy rings and set them in the ocean to float. Press or roll the caramel candy to flatten and then crimp the edges to make a boat. Attach a square sticky note to a toothpick to make a sail. Stick it in the boat, along with a cookie bear as a sailor.

Steps:

• Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream using a mini offset spatula.
• Scatter half the ground wafer cookies on a platter or serving tray large enough to hold the 24 cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes in four rows of six. Scatter more "dirt" over the cupcakes and around the edges of the tray.
• Arrange the strawberries randomly on the cupcakes. Arrange the candy flowers randomly.
• Poke holes in a cardboard egg carton. Pinch off pea-size or smaller bits of green fondant and roll them on your work surface to look like blades of grass, leaving one end thick and the other thin and pointy. Press 2 to 5 blades together and stick them on the end of a toothpick. Let dry, upright, in the egg carton. Roll the remaining green fondant between your hands to create 10 thin 2- to 3-inchlong squiggly vines. Wrap them around pencils and set them aside to dry. Place them under the strawberries and randomly in the patch.
• Top one cupcake with one of your favorite fondant creatures, such as a butterfly, caterpillar or ladybug.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together cookie crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Beat butter with granulated sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating until combined after each addition. Fold in coconut.
• Divide batter among cups. Bake until cupcakes are golden brown and centers bounce back when gently pressed, 22 to 24 minutes. Let cool completely in tin on a wire rack.
• Add 2 tablespoons water to a small saucepan. Sprinkle with gelatin; let stand until thick, about 5 minutes. Gently heat over medium until gelatin has dissolved. Remove from heat; let cool 5 minutes (but don't let it set).
• Beat together cream, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until very soft peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. Add gelatin mixture; beat on medium until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute more.
• Remove cupcakes from tin and arrange on a platter in a three-by-four rectangle. Spoon frosting over each row of cupcakes; using an offset spatula, smooth to cover tops, forming a rectangular shape. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours. Sprinkle with berries before serving.