Birthday bug cake
See this recipe step by step

Birthday bug cake

Children will love the butterfly and ladybird decorations on this colourful cake – and you'll love its simplicity

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 16

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 50 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr 20 mins

Method

  1. Bake the Easy vanilla cake in a greased, lined deep 20cm cake tin as in the basic recipe; drench with syrup and leave to cool. Leave the oven on.
  2. Break the white chocolate into cubes into a microwaveable bowl, and heat on High for 1 min (or melt over a pan of simmering water). Stir, then leave any remaining lumps to melt in the warm liquid chocolate. Once just-warm, beat the chocolate into the buttercream.
  3. Start the butterflies. Put the whole giant buttons on a flat baking tray on non-stick baking paper, then put into the oven for 20-30 secs or until the chocolate looks shiny. Take out, scatter with hundreds and thousands, then leave to set completely before cutting in half with a large non-serrated knife. For the ladybirds, pipe dots of icing all over the already cut giant button halves, then leave aside to dry.
  4. Spread the buttercream over the cake, then start to arrange the butterflies. Cut each Matchmaker into 3 - these will make the bodies. Press onto the cake, then stick four giant button halves around each body to make 'wings'. For the ladybirds, place two spotty button halves together, then use a small button for the head. Scatter more hundreds and thousands all over the cake, then poke in the candles.
Try

TIP

The decorated cake can be left, loosely covered, in a cool, dry place (not the fridge) for up to 24 hours before the party.

PER SERVING

536 kcalories, protein 7.0g, carbohydrate 64.0g, fat 30.0 g, saturated fat 18.0g, fibre 1.0g, sugar 47.0g, salt 0.28 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, June 2009.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 21-34

  • Binder photo jodi

    06 June 2010

    jodi rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    SAVE TIME.. I found putting the bugs in the oven didn't work for me so I put the sprinkles into a bowl & just rubbed syrup or honey (I used honey) onto one side of the buttons, then dip them in the sprinkles sticky side down. They were easy to cut in half with a none serated knife. Much more simple and saved allot of time. Iv just finished making this for my daughters 2nd birthday it looks fab.

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  • Binder photo jo_madzayo

    04 September 2010

    jo_madzayo commented on this recipe

    such a lovely cake, made this for my cousin as a gift and she was overwhelmed with it. I have now been asked to make for other peoples parties and going to try a different variation with the buttercream. Did as per the instuctions and was perfect.

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  • Binder photo Angelfire007

    15 September 2010

    Angelfire007 commented on this recipe

    I made this cake yesterday for my son's 2 birthday. It was absolutely gorgeous, so moist and very vanillary. I decided not to cut it and put a filling in, so the buttercream went on on the top. I decorated as in the recipe, but i put sugar stars instead of hundreds and thousands on top of the cake! My son was really thrilled with his cake as was everyone else.

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  • Binder photo Suzy Thomson

    26 October 2010

    Suzy Thomson commented on this recipe

    Hi id love to make this for my daughters birthday next week but dont know how to make the basic vanilla buttercream mix?? can anyone help?

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  • Binder photo FeeFee

    24 January 2011

    FeeFee rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    i have made this cake recipe now about...erm 5 fives and it has been a great hit everyone...its been part of a few birthdays and also christmas day of 2010...i wanted to make something different besides christmas pudding and this put a unique touch to our family meal...

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  • Binder photo Gubsie

    05 February 2011

    Gubsie rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Made an adapted version for my 19-yr-old step-daughter's birthday�.substituted hundreds & thousands for pink sugar crystals (Fiddes Payne - Pretty 'n' Pink selection tub) and edible gold glitter. No chocolate buttons to hand but had chocolate coins leftover from Xmas which are much larger than giant chocolate buttons, but I carried on as directed, and the butterflies look amazing!! With the gold glitter & sparkly pale pink crystals they're very Matthew Williamson - just one single butterfly on the side of the cake (jutting up slightly) looked like a statement broach. I eventually whizzed out for giant buttons... instead of using red icing to do the spots I stuck three pink pearls (from the Fiddes Payne tub) on each half of lady bug wing... spectacular effect - perfect for an 'older' birthday � and tasted delicious too.

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  • Binder photo Missy Wombat

    16 April 2011

    Missy Wombat rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Big hit for my daughter's 10th birthday. Easy to make - you don't need a mixer. Butterflies were a huge hit.

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  • Binder photo Fubitzmum

    02 November 2011

    Fubitzmum commented on this recipe

    Made this for baby's 1st birthday cake. Had to use twice the amount of buttercream as it was not quite enough to cover the whole cake. Very nice, moist cake. I ended up adding more sugar to my syrup as it was so watery I was worried it would just make it mushy. It made it have a crispy edge and moist centre which worked well. I didn't do the homemade choc as I didn't have time but used the same idea using cadbury buttons and sprinkled buttons out of the candy king section. Lots of good comments were received, def. make again!

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  • Binder photo Jellybaby791

    06 May 2012

    Jellybaby791 rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Really nice Icing recipe! Instead of Giant buttons I just used white buttons which already have sprinkles for the butterflies and normal ones for the ladybirds, still looked pretty. Yummy

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  • Binder photo coco06

    26 May 2012

    coco06 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Very enjoyable to make this for my daughter's 1st birthday. Found it hard to get the matchstick chocolate as Tesco only stock them at Christmas but got after eight ones in another store. Icing was very rich but I made the cake a day in advance and the icing tasted better the 2nd day for some reason and the vanilla cake went down a treat.

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  • Binder photo ollyeyes

    26 August 2012

    ollyeyes commented on this recipe

    Am i losing the plot cant find the recipe for the cake help please

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  • Binder photo Lindy

    27 August 2012

    Lindy commented on this recipe

    What a fabulous recipe!! Made this for my husbands birthday and used Kit Kats all around the sides with ribbon to hold, it was very moist and tasty! I'm planning on making this birthday bug cake for my daughters 2nd birthday. Wondering does anyone know if ok to use cocoa to make a chocolate sponge - will it work with the greek yoghurt? Cheers :-)

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  • Binder photo hetty74

    02 September 2012

    hetty74 commented on this recipe

    Ollyeyes , scroll down page , there's a link to the cake recipe on the right hand side

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  • Binder photo thabieh

    12 January 2013

    thabieh commented on this recipe

    I am going to try this next weekend, I look forward to tasting it.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 16

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 50 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr 20 mins

Ingredients

  • Easy vanilla cake and syrup mix (see recipe below)
  • 100g white chocolate (I used Milkybar)
  • Basic vanilla buttercream mix (see Easy vanilla cake recipe below)
  • 12 giant chocolate buttons , 6 cut in half
  • treat-size pack chocolate buttons
  • 2 chocolate sticks (I used Matchmakers)
  • hundreds and thousands
  • multicoloured candles
  • red (or whatever colour you like) writing icing tubes (I used Asda)
  • multicoloured candles
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PER SERVING

536 kcalories, protein 7.0g, carbohydrate 64.0g, fat 30.0 g, saturated fat 18.0g, fibre 1.0g, sugar 47.0g, salt 0.28 g

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