Chocolate Orange Butterfly Cakes

Yep, you read that right. This weekend, Logan & I made chocolate orange cupcakes, and boy they were delicious! This recipe was just what my future mother-in-law ordered for her 29-again birthday! They're simple and delicious!

Let's start out with the actual cupcake.

To save some time, we used store-bought cake mix. Some home-made mixes are too crumbly, and be careful about the "Super Moist" store-boughts. We got a Hershey's chocolate cake mix with fudge filling! No changes made in this step, just bake them as per the directions.

While your cupcakes are in the oven, go ahead and whip up the icing. 

The following recipe I doubled and was able to ice 12 cupcakes with it. I ended up making an extra batch of icing to finish off the following 6, with a bit extra to eat! 

Orange Sugar Icing

6 tbs softened butter

1 1/3 cups powdered sugar

zest from 1/2 an orange

juice (about 2 tbs) from 1/2 an orange

Directions

Whip the butter until fluffy in a medium sized bowl.

Gradually add in the powdered sugar, whipping until it's all folded together. 

Whip in the zest and orange juice.

You can also use the recipe for lemon icing!

Now, when your cupcakes come out of the oven, be sure to let them cool all the way before you start cutting or icing. I popped ours in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Once they come out, take a bread knife and cut the tops off of each cupcake. 

There is no set amount to cut off the top, but know that the more you cut off, the bigger the butterfly is going to be!

Now to add the icing that takes the cake (or cupcake!)

Use an icing pump or icing bag. The inside of the cupcake is exposed, so spreading the icing will only make it crumble.

The piece that we cut off is going to make the butterfly wings. Cut it in half down the middle, then put them top side up and together, flat side out. Place them in the icing straight up and down, and when you let go, they will fall to the "butterfly-position."

When all your cupcakes are nice and butterfly kissed, sift just a little bit of powdered sugar over the batch. 

Voila!

Enjoy!!