I am making 2 butterfly cakes in July, 1 for a 1st birthday and the other for a 38th birthday. Since the photos will likely be side by side in my portfolio, I would like them to be somewhat different.

For both cakes, I was planning to use a 10" round cut in half. The 1st b-day colors will be purple and yellow. Likely a yellow cake with bc filling.

The adult cake should have a more mature look, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. I have no info on the birthday woman, except that she likes butterflies and does not like chocolate. I thought more saturated/vibrant colors for the older cake and pastels for the baby cake, but I'm afraid the vibrant cake will look too pre-teen and not adult enough. I've also thought about doing fondant tiers instead of a shaped cake, but I've just started learning to work with fondant & gumpaste, so I'm not sure if I'm ready to do it on this cake. It's for a friend of a friend, so I don't feel like she would be as forgiving, iykwim.

I would try to make it as real as possible. Maybe black and orange like a monarch butterfly. Maybe try to mimic the pattern.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://fohn.net/monarch-butterfly-pictures/monarch-butterfly_large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fohn.net/monarch-butterfly-pictures/&h=290&w=452&sz=19&tbnid=dA9L-DolOcw9HM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmonarch%2Bbutterfly&hl=en&usg=__fokV_xDxxyF91HExhLJngz5Q9o0=&sa=X&ei=pDY2TMjEO4SclgfHwcHSBw&ved=0CC0Q9QEwAQ

Here is a pic for reference... HTH

Or blue and black like this one!

http://www.butterfly-gifts.com/0121-butterflys.html

I really think a realistic pattern will give it the more grown-up look!

Yep, that's what I would do! The blue swallowtail. I would cut out a triangular shape from each side and do black around the edges and blue in the middle.

That's a great idea!

Let us know how it turns out!