Name: Easy Encanto Birthday Cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: box cake mix; vegetable oil; eggs; milk or water; butter; cream; vanilla; powdered sugar; pink colored chocolate melting candy; yellow food coloring

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If you have a birthday coming up for someone who’s obsessed with the movie Encanto, I’ve got the perfect, easy DIY Encanto cake for you! Anyone who’s seen this movie knows there are a ton of bright yellow butterflies, and the main character has butterflies all over her dress. The great news is it’s actually very simple to make a butterfly cake, and with a few extra touches like cardstock characters and edible cake toppers you can quickly learn how to make an easy Encanto cake too.

Butterflies are a symbol of transformation; just think of the funny little caterpillar crawling before it learns to fly. In the movie Encanto, the main character, Mirabel, is on a journey to find out if she has a gift and what it might be. She is going to bring transformation and hope to her family, so you see A LOT of yellow butterflies in the movie. This Encanto cake is full of vibrant colors like bright yellow and pink. It’s sure to stand out at your Encanto themed birthday party.

Ingredients
- box of Betty Crocker cake mix or your favorite cake recipe
- vegetable oil
- eggs
- water or milk
- butter
- cream
- vanilla
- powdered sugar
- chocolate melting candy
- yellow food coloring
Materials
- round cake pan
- cake board
- Encanto cake toppers
- whisk
- knife
- stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- spoons
- silicone butterfly mold
- two bowls
- piping bags
- piping tips

How to make an Encanto birthday cake

Step 1 Prep work

Before I started making my Encanto butterfly birthday cake, I ordered some cake toppers online and I also made some chocolate butterflies. I used a silicone butterfly mold and some pink chocolate melting candy to make these cute cake decorations. When I was looking at different Encanto cake ideas, butterflies seemed to be a really pretty theme that you can use to make a simple ‘butterfly cut-up cake’ and decorate with a beginner skill level like I have.

Step 2 Gather ingredients

Get all your ingredients together, line your circular cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You can use chocolate cake or vanilla cake for this recipe as long as you have white buttercream or frosting for the top of the cake (not chocolate frosting).

Step 3 Mix wet

Sift your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl or put the box cake mix into a bowl and set it aside.

Step 4 Mix dry

Mix your wet ingredients together until your eggs, oil, water or milk and vanilla extract are blended.

Step 5 Combine wet and dry

Mix your wet and dry ingredients together until they’re just combined, with no lumps – don’t over mix it. Then fill your cake pan ¾ full.

Step 6 Bake cake

Bake your cake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until you can prick it with a toothpick and it comes back out dry.

Step 7 Cool and freeze cake

Let your cake fully cool to room temperature. Remove your cake from the cake pan, cover it in plastic wrap and put it in your freezer so it’s more solid when you go to put frosting on it and start decorating.

Step 8 Cut your butterfly shaped cake

Cut your frozen cake in half, then cut out small triangles from just below the center of your cake. Once you cut the first side you can use it to measure the second side so they look equal. Flip your cake pieces around so the cake looks like the shape of a butterfly. Place your cake pieces on a cake board.

Step 9 Make your icing

Make your vanilla butter cream frosting with 1 cup of butter and about 4 cups of icing, 1 tsp of vanilla and 2 tsp of cream or milk. Blend it with a hand mixer or stand mixer until it’s fully mixed and no sugar crystals remain. If you think you’ve put in too much moisture with your milk or cream, try adding a bit more powdered sugar or put your icing in the fridge to firm up if it’s starting to melt.

Step 10 Frost your cake

Take ¾ of your icing out into a new bowl and mix in yellow food coloring. Put a layer of yellow frosting all over the butterfly shaped birthday cake and then put the rest of your yellow icing in a piping bag to decorate with. Then put the rest of your white icing in another piping bag. I used a star tip and a flower tip, but you can use whichever you like best for decorating.

Step 11 Decorate your Encanto cake

Place as many chocolate butterflies wherever you’d like. (I tried to go with a symmetrical look.) Use your yellow frosting to pipe the decorative edging on your cake.

Then use your white and yellow frosting to pipe flowers and swirls over the surface of your cake in any pattern you’d like.

Place your Encanto cake toppers on top of your decorated butterfly cake.

Other Encanto Cake Ideas

Making a beautiful Encanto themed birthday cake topped with Mirabel Madrigal and other Encanto characters is possible even for a beginner cake maker like me. A fun, themed cake is sure to make any special occasion feel memorable.

I’ve seen some other great Encanto cake ideas that use edible cake images with a high quality edible ink, but most moms don’t have access to those materials. It’s possible to order them from specialty shops.

Other Encanto-themed cakes I’ve seen have used edible icing paper like rice paper to create an edible cake topper image. You could consider ordering an edible product as an Encanto character cake topper instead of the paper ones I ordered.

Another option would be to print off your own Encanto themed cake topper on card stock at home. As long as the image is for your own personal use and you’re not selling it, making your own Encanto cake topper is another option (just make sure you get the image size right before printing it off).

You could also buy some fun butterfly stickers to decorate around your butterfly shaped cake. They could be added to your party favors for guests to take home with them. I found some nice reusable vinyl butterfly stickers and added them to my order when I was purchasing the Encanto character cake toppers.

Conclusion

You’re bound to have a happy birthday with this perfect birthday cake for the Encanto lover in your life. With a little bit of patience and a few of the right materials, you can make this easy DIY Encanto cake at home. Another beautiful dessert option for a party is tanghulu, which is fruit with a sugar coated candy shell. For more butterfly-inspired dessert fun, check out this recipe for butterfly cupcakes too!