I'm doing wedding cupcakes (my first) for my brother's wedding in September, and want to do small fondant butterflies for some of the toppers. I'm looking for a mold, but I've never really used molds before! I saw one for "lace butterflies," but wanted to know if this would be a nightmare of sticking and tearing

Has anyone used them?? Not sure if I can post the link

I have seen these used on youtube, and it takes the woman about 10 minutes to make 1, she even had to use toothpicks to pry the smaller pieces out. It looked like a PITA.


This is just a suggestion, make yourself up some royal icing, and place in a bag with a very little hole, find a really nice filigree butterfly on the internet and use it as a stencil under wax paper, and lay the completed butterflies in a way to raise their wings. They look beautiful, and there are members who have made them on this forum. I am enclosing a pic I found on the internet to give you an idea.

I have used the Butterfly & Insect Brooch Mold by Karen Davies. I found them easy to use and very elegant looking. (Cornstarch is a really good friend with silicone molds)
I did not buy the lace butterfly molds by FPC because they seemed too intricate to easily mold in fondant. And I have to admit, I loved the brooch look as I really don't like live looking insects on a cake. I do love the look of the brooch ones.

after several attempts to upload the pic...

sfandm,
what mold was used. Those are really pretty

It's not a mold, basically it's a photo off the internet that someone put under wax paper then using royal icing in a bag, piped over the design, and then they dried them at angles, to create the flying butterfly look. It's actually really easy, if you do searches on youtube for filigree butterflies with royal icing, there are a couple cideo tuts about them. They are beautiful, but I CAN'T take credit, they are someone elses work, hence the "SAMPLE" over the pic. Glad you like them. Go to this site, scroll down, she shows a pic of what she did.

http://lindseychamberlain.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/premade-royal-icing-decorations/

Or how about these... gorgeous!!


http://sliceofcake.deviantart.com/art/Royal-Icing-Butterflies-113339684

This is the set that I purchased. I used gumpaste but a 50/50 of gumpaste and fondant would probably work fine. Just make sure you lightly grease the cutters with shortening. I saw them on this cake and fell in love with the cutter set. http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2339424/lily-and-butterfly-wedding-cake The Jem butterfly cutter set was used for this cake. You have to draw on the lines of the butterfly. The Patchwork cutter set imprints them for you. I use an extra fine non toxic black sharpy and color within the lines and use petal dusts and luster dust to add color. http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2157114/traditional-elegance-flowers-and-butterflies I found the patchwork cutter set on Ebay. It was less expensive to order from the UK including shipping. I was surprised how fast the shipping was from England.

Wow, those RI butterflies are beautiful! But I haven't had any luck with using RI this way. I tried the technique with snowflakes last Winter and 75% of them broke, and if I made them thicker, they weren't very pretty or delicate! I researched how to make RI more sturdy for that purpose, but couldn't find anything.

I will have to research the molds you've each recommended. I like the look of the PME plunger type ones, as I like that style for doing flowers. Anyone used that type of mold/cutout for butterflies?

I wonder if I filled a hollow type butterfly mold with royal icing, if it would dry and pop out with the butterfly impression? Anyone ever do that??

What about this butterfly cutter? You could use gumpaste they look dainty. http://www.ebay.com/itm/JEM-Lacy-Butterfly-Cutters-Set-of-4-Sugarcraft-Cupcake-Toppers-Cake-Craft-/271009775125?pt=Uk_Crafts_Cake_Decorating_MJ&hash=item3f1970fe15 I have purchased from this seller before and I was surprised on how fast I received my package.

Same cutter set different price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-JEM-Lacy-Butterfly-Cupcake-Cutters-/221047720969?pt=Uk_Crafts_Cake_Decorating_MJ&hash=item3377788c09

I wonder if I filled a hollow type butterfly mold with royal icing, if it would dry and pop out with the butterfly impression? Anyone ever do that??

I have the butterfly cutters pictured below, I got them from ebay for $3.00 with free shipping, they took about 2-3 weeks to get to me. Everywhere else they are $8-10 per set, plus shipping. I also have alot of the other plunger cutters all bought from oversea, 95% with free shipping. They work great, they give vein detail, and work great with chocolate clay. I have read several posts on here about the JEM cutters and how tedious they are to cut. Yes, they are lacey when done, but I don't feel like using a toothpick on each one. There is a really good tut on youtube about piped RI that is a great recipe. The girl even explains the difference between regular RI and her recipe. I use a squeeze bottle that I bought at HL for .99 and I fill it up, it has a pinhole, but I just cut it a little to make the hole bigger. I marked the bottle RI Piping so that I don't make mistakes with my white candy melts. Just FYI

sfandm: those are the ones I was looking at Thanks everyone!

Not sure if you're still looking. But there's also a seller on eBay who sells pre cut edible wafer glittery butterflies. She's in the uk 'sugartop' is the seller. They're really cheap, got here quickly and looked really pretty on some cupcakes I did. But I do loooove those royal icing ones... Will b trying those myself!