Fondant Butterflies… The battle continues :)

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I’m working on a really exciting project for a friend’s birthday party. She’s ordered a rainbow birthday cake and given me free reign over the decoration of the cake. Bliss!!!!

I thought this would be a good opportunity to overcome my fear of fondant by using it on a small scale by way of rainbow coloured butterflies.

My Rainbow butterflies 🙂

So without any further ado how’s how I got on…

I used Dr. Oetker’s ready to roll fondant, which comes in red, yellow, green, blue and black. I mixed some of the red and yellow fondant to get orange. After a failed attempt at mixing coloured fondant to create violet, I opted for mixing Wilton’s gel violet colouring and a batch of ready to roll white fondant.

Getting my fondant ready

Next I rolled out each colour (you need to knead the fondant first to make it pliable) and used a butterfly cutter to cut out the butterfly shapes in different sizes. I found dusting the cutters with corn flour helped prevent the fondant from sticking. I covered my work surface with a generous dusting of corn flour (don’t judge me). I also rolled and cut one colour at a time.

Cutting fun

After cutting my butterflies, I used a Wilton Wave Flower Former to set the butterflies. I wanted my butterflies to look like they were flying you see. Again I dusted the flower former to prevent sticking and let the butterflies set overnight.

Looks a bit like colourful mayhem

Next day my butterflies looked amazing. I was so pleased!!!

don’t they just look ready to take flight???

I felt that the colours weren’t popping enough (I know! I know! Being OTT is a problem but sometimes it has to be done 😉 ) so I used Wilton’s colour mist sprays to deepen the colour of the butterflies and then I let sit for a few minutes until dry to touch. A word of caution. I really went OTT with the purple spray and some of them became flat as a result 😦 You may be tempted to do the same but … DON’T DO IT!!! lol

mystified!

When dry, I dusted each butterfly with glitter down the middle for no reason other than I thought it would look prettier. Besides who doesn’t like a bit of glitter every now and again.

I used dry glitter dust but for a richer effect you can mix yours with clear lemon extract before applying.

I think I’ll call you Harvey!!!

So there you have it folks! A fun weekend of making butterflies. Have you used cutters before? What tips do you have? What creations have you made? Any suggestions for novices like myself? I’d love to hear from you.

Before I go, I’d like to remember the butterflies who never got to take flight!

You were part of my learning process

Until next time… Have a good cake day!!!

XOXO

This post is part of the monthly link up party Our Growing Edge. This event aims to connect food bloggers and inspire us to try new things. This month is hosted by Hannah at Love the Little Bakery.