Whenever I get invited to a baby shower, I
1) get excited about the imminent arrival of a new little person, then
2) get excited that I can make these pink and blue velvet butterfly cupcakes.
(Let’s just ignore the gender stereotyping here. Because CUPCAKES!)

They are based on a recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly Cake Baking cookbook, which I’ve tweaked slightly.

125g butter
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp vinegar
pink and blue food dye
raspberry and blueberry jam
icing sugar

Crushed raspberry and blueberry cream
1/2 cup thickened cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup frozen raspberries
1/4 cup frozen blueberries

Have butter and egg whites at room temperature.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. I use paper baking cups- or you can line muffin pans.
Combine chopped butter, egg whites, extract, caster sugar and buttermilk with an electric mixer.
Combine bicarb with vinegar in a separate bowl. Stir until foamy.
Split bicarb vinegar mixture evenly into 2 bowls. Tint one bowl with pink food dye and other bowl with blue food dye.
Halve butter mixture. Add pink mixture to one bowl and blue mixture to the other.
Beat both mixtures on low until combined. Turn up to medium and beat until mixture turns a pale colour. Mixture will look slightly curdled.
Divide mixture into cases. Bake for about 20 minutes.
Once cooled, use a sharp knife to cut a small round from the top of each cupcake.
Cut round in half to make two wings.
Fill cavities in blue cupcakes with a dollop of blueberry jam and blueberry cream.
Fill cavities in pink cupcakes with a dollop of raspberry jam and raspberry cream.
Position wings on cake and dust with icing sugar.

Crushed raspberry cream
Beat cream, icing sugar and extract with electric blender until firm peaks form.
Split between 2 bowls evenly. Crush frozen raspberries with a fork and fold into one bowl of cream.
Repeat process with frozen blueberries and fold into other bowl of cream.

Cakes keep in airtight container in fridge for 2 days or in the freezer (without cream) for 1 month.