Today’s recipe is for Victoria Sponge Butterfly Cakes.
A firm memory from my childhood is Butterfly Cakes. Basically they are cupcakes where the top has been sliced off and then halved to be used as wings which are then adhered to the topping to resemble butterfly wings.
Usually the topping, in my childhood, was made from a simple buttercream. The cakes were very simple but they tasted so good.
The soft and light cake, complemented by the sweet buttercream was. firm favourite.
For my version I decided to use a tried and tested Victoria Sponge cake recipe for the cake. Then I thought that adding some jam and cream, instead of buttercream, would be a very good alternative and would actuall give the full taste of a Victoria Sponge or Sandwich.
The recipe is very easy to make and doesn’t use too many ingredients. Although I flavoured mine with vanilla, as is usual with Victoria Sponges, the cake could easily have other flavours by using some orange or lemon zest in the batter. Either or those would be a lovely alternative.
Equally, instead of using whipped cream the more traditional buttercream could be used. The jam is also optional so can be included or not. The flavour of jam can be varied too.
For those who wish to go even further some cocoa powder can be used in the cake batter to make a chocolate alternative with, perhaps, a rich chocolate buttercream.
I baked my cakes for 19 minutes. They turned out very well indeed, being soft and light and with that wonderful flavour of a Victoria Sponge.
For anyone wishing to try a Victoria Sponge, in all its’ glory I have a recipe: All-in-one Victoria Sandwich Sponge Cake.
Or, as Christmas approaches, my Spiced Cupcakes for Christmas can be used for a lovely alternative.
Victoria Sponge Butterfly Cakes
Course: CakesCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy8
servings15
minutes20
minutesIngredients
- Cake Batter
115g(2/3 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp based on scooping pack flour into a 250ml cup) Self-raising flour(see note below if using plain/all purpose flour)
115g(1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
115g(1/2 cup) caster sugar
2 medium eggs(large in USA)
5ml(1 tsp) vanilla extract
2g(1/2 tsp) baking powder(8g/2 tsp if using plain flour, see note below)
- Topping
13g(1 tbsp) caster sugar
250ml(1 cup) double cream
about 2 tbsp strawberry jam(or other flavour if preferred)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F.
- Place 8 cupcake cases into a muffin pan.
- In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and beat to fully combine each time.
- Put in the vanilla extract and again beat to combine.
- Place the baking powder into the flour and stir around.
- Sift the flour mixture onto the wet ingredients and use a spatula or a spoon to fold in until just combined.
- Spoon the batter, in equal portions, into the paper cups.
- Bake in the oven for 17 to 20 minutes, until the cakes have risen and coloured, and are springy to the touch. A skewer poked in the centre should come our clean.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool down.
- Put the cream into a large bowl and add the sugar then beat them together until the cream has reached stiff peaks.
- Carefully cut out a circle of cake from each of the cupcakes, holding the knife at a 45 degree angle, and cut in half to make the two wings.
- Spoon some jam into the dip created in each cupcake.
- Spoon, or pipe, the whipped cream over the jam to cover the top the cakes.
- Place the cut pieces of cake onto the cream to create the effect of butterfly wings. Then the cakes are ready to serve.