How To: Make a Butterfly-Shaped Birthday Cake

First, bake two 11 x 13 rectangular cakes.  I made one chocolate, and one vanilla.

Then draw a butterfly wing on a sheet of paper, and cut it out.  This is your template.

Place template on first cake.  Cut around cake according to template.  Do the same to the second cake.

You will have cake "scraps."

Time to decorate!  Gather your supplies, such as: colored frosting, decorating bags, couplers, tips, candies, etc.  This is the fun part!

Decorate any way you wish.  There are lots of different ways to decorate a butterfly.  First I piped frosting on the entire butterfly, alternating pink and yellow stripes.  Then I chose to make the "body" out of M &M's and the "antennae" out of frosting that I drew on the board.  I also made the hearts and spelled my daughter's name in M & M's.

I wrote "Happy 3rd Birthday" on the board to not take away from the design on te cake.

The birthday girl, who seemed very pleased with the result!