The little weekly brain-teaser that generally assails me of a Friday morning resulted in a decision to return to baking a special treat I hadn't prepared in many years.  When the children were young I often made "butterfly cupcakes", an especial favourite of theirs.

So, this morning, after breakfast, after we had slowly and enjoyably walked through the gardens, performing a a few little garden tasks as we proceeded, I set about preparing to bake our Friday-evening dessert treat.  A simple white-cake recipe is quick work to whip up, consisting of granulated sugar, Becel margarine, two eggs, cup and a quarter of cake and pastry flour, tsp. baking powder, dash of salt, and two tablespoons of milk.

Popped into the counter-top convection oven on this very hot day, the cupcakes baked in no time, and the kitchen was spared becoming over-heated.  Then it was a simple matter to wait until they cooled enough to slice off the tops.  I had earlier mixed together sugar, cornstarch, a little cranberry juice and a cup and a half of frozen raspberries, for a thick raspberry sauce, slowly cooking it to a glazed and thick consistency.

When the cupcakes were cool enough, I sliced off the tops and ladled the raspberry sauce over the remaining cupcake tops, then covered the cut-off tops with plain vanilla icing (Becel, icing sugar, vanilla flavouring, dash of cream) and cut those tops equally in half.

The cut tops were then placed back on top of the cupcakes, with the halves cantered to resemble wings, and voila! there were our butterfly cupcakes for dessert.