Butterflies cake

I had a request for a 2 year old's birthday cake (nut free). The theme was butterflies. Since I have a son, I love making girly cakes, since it means bright colors & possibly glitter. Obviously glitter is appropriate for older girls as well (like me).

The mom sent me pics to use as a guide for the cake, and I went to work pinning some butterfly cakes. I love this one but it's a lot to do for a birthday cake. I decided on a tree stump since it would set off the colored butterflies well.

I wanted to do chocolate butterflies but Wilton candy melts and other chocolates are not nut free. So then I attempted to make gelatin butterflies, what an utter failure & mess. I decided on gum paste, since I had some leftover from my Wilton class. That way she couldn't eat it (well, she could but it wouldn't taste good) & I got bright colors like I wanted. I'm no longer intimidated by it & will use it more in the future. I would love to learn how to make realistic flowers. I learned some in my Wilton class, but nothing too detailed, which of course are the ones I like.

I made 4 8" vanilla rounds, stacked 4 high then added some roots & a knothole. It was easy since I had little sculpting to do.

Her Mom says she doesn't have a problem with food colors, but I still wanted to minimize any risk. I used a light & a dark chocolate basic buttercream, that way I knew she would be fine. I raked a fork over it for bark texture and added some circles on top for aging. That was about it for the cake - the work was in the gum paste.

I couldn't be happier with it, I loved it!

Here's the final product:

knothole detail:

I wold up making small & large butterflies, 32 total. Since a 2 year old doesn't need subtlety, I added them all. And I loved it! Here's a butterfly detail: 

Here's a 360 view:

Purple/white interior shot, which is always a hit when the partygoers see it.

I try to make some sort of surprise in every cake.

Another baking success!