Hi all, I've recently been asked to me a cake for a 21st birthday, decorated with red butterflies. How would I go about making something like this? I would like the wings at an angle. Its for a double tier, fondant covered fruit cake.

Your input will be appreciated.

Thanks

I just finished Course II, so I'm probably not much help. Are you using royal icing, color flow, or gumpaste?

I am not a pro and it is kinda early(can't sleep--dad passed away yesterday so came here to veg!), but I saw a Martha Stewart program that they did beautiful butterflies made with rice(wafer) paper. They used piping gel and food markers(?). Maybe go to her site and do a search. They were gorgeous and looked pretty simple.

look in the forms and their an how to.. when i did my butterflies, I used wafer paper

I was actually thinking about doing them in royal icing and then using the flooding technique on the wings, but I'll geuss they would break quite easily then......would really like to make them from paste, not to found of the rice paper or wafer ideas....

I used my butterfly cookie cutter and cut them out of fondant. I raised the wings where I wanted them and put rolled up paper towels under them. They dried overnight then I airbrushed.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1142903

Thanks so much "kimkait"!! That's exactly what I had in mind. Your butterflies are beautiful. Will give it a try tonight.

I would use chocolate. I used it not to long ago and was so pleased at how easy it was. To make the wings stand up I used royal icing. I tried do it use wafer paper and I did not like how cheesy they looked. The colors were to unrealistic. Hope this helps.

I also used a butterfly cookie cutter and cut out of gumpaste. I let them dry in my flower former so I could get the raised wings. They might not be as adult looking as you were going for, I wanted them to be a bit more detailed and angular, but I really struggled to find a cookie cutter the right size!

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=587093

I found butterflies pre-printed on wafer paper at CakeArt.com. Brush them with piping gel, allow them to dry (I prop them up to make the wings look realistic) then make royal icing or melted chocolate bodies.

Hopefully you can see one clearly in the attached photo.

There's an article here on CC on how to do these with the rice/wafer paper. I've done it and it's pretty easy. I was having issues with my markers so they didn't turn out as fabulous as I hoped but they were still very pretty. Here's the link to the article: http://www.cakecentral.com/article16-How-To-Make-Realistic-Edible-Butterflies.html

I did small butterflies on my pink Easter cake, these were a different style but were cut out of gum paste. I have a few different kinds of butterfly cutters.

Lilla I would use gumpaste and roll out really really thin. Use a butterfly cutter and then allow to dry in a V-shaped ridge made from cardboard. Once dry, you could dust them and to get a bit of a shine you could either use steam or spray n'cook or confectioners glaze.

Oh I almost forgot. Before doing the dusting, make the body out of a tiny piece of gumpaste and roll into a sausage and add 2 stamens and attach that to the centre.

HTH

Thank you all for your comments. Will be making them from gumpaste and will post the pice when done. Would love to hear your comments.