Retro: Beautiful Butterfly Birthday Cake

This beautiful butterfly cake was made for me by my Mum for my fifth birthday. It’s from the out-of-print Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, circa 1980. I hope to post more cakes from this awesome book soon, if not for baking at least for nostalgia. How many of you were made cakes from this book when you were a kid?

YOU WILL NEED

1 packet butter cake mix

1 quantity Vienna Cream*

apricot food colouring

Lollies:

Licorice

Chocolate Freckles

Orange jellybeans

Red, pink and orange Smarties

DIRECTIONS

Make cake according to directions on packet. Pour into greased deep 25cm (10in) round cake tin. Bake in moderate oven 30-35 minutes or until cooked when tested. Turn on to wire rack to cool.
Cut and assemble cake to form butterfly. Tint Vienna Cream with apricot food colouring. Cover top and sides of cake with frosting. Licorice strips represent feelers and patterns on wings. Decorate with assorted sweets as shown.

* VIENNA CREAM FROSTING

You Will Need:

125g butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Have butter and milk at room temperature. Place butter in small bowl of electric mixer, beat until butter is as white as possible. Gradually add about half the sifted icing sugar, beating constantly. Add milk gradually then gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar, mixture should be smooth and easy to spread with a spatula.

Chocolate Vienna Cream

Make up the basic recipe as above and add 2 tablespoons sifted cocoa to the icing sugar.

Coloured Vienna Cream

A large variety of food coloring is available from supermarkets… Start to tint Vienna Cream by dipping a skewer into the bottle of colouring, shaking off the excess, then dipping the skewer into the icing, beating well with a wooden spoon.

Notes

Pure icing sugar or icing sugar mixture can be used in Vienna Cream. Sift icing sugar through a fine sieve for best results.

Make Vienna Cream on the day it is to be used; keep covered during use as a crust will develop if it is left uncovered.

Do not refrigerate cream as this will cause the butter to harden and it may separate. For best results Vienna Cream should be applied to a cake on the day it is to be served. You can apply it the day before serving but, if you do, the cream will become slightly darker and crust in appearance.

When applying the Vienna Cream, make sure it coveres the cake around the base near the board to form a seal and help keep the cake fresh.

Use a small spatula when applying Vienna Cream as this will give a smooth surface to the cake. Cream will spread easily, but if you do want a particularly smooth surface, dip the spatula in hot water, dry quickly, and use heat to spread the cream.

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