Butterfly Cake Decorating

Mother's Day Cake. Four ?s Please Help!!!?

I'm planning to make a cake for my mom for Mother's Day. I have four questions about decorations and such please, I'd be happy with any sort of advice.
1) You know the silver dragees? (the little ball things) What is the best way to apply them?

2) I want to make a two layer chocolate cake, covered with white fondant. What is the best type of cake to use?

3) I want to top it with a sphere cake, decorated like a sun, And I was going to try to find yellow squiggly candles to use as the "rays" but I can't seem to find any. Anyone have any ideas to what can I use as sun rays?

4)At the top I want to secure butterflies to the top to look like they're flying around the cake, with some sort of wire, anyone have any suggestions? Or how I can make the wire blend into the blue background?

1) Royal icing- it dries hard quickly. Whenever I'm applying small sprinkles to cakes and cupcakes, I use a small tip (maybe a 2 or 3, depending on the size of your dragees) and medium/thin consistency royal icing.

2) A pound cake (you want a cake that is dense so that it is able to hold of the weight of the fondant).

3) How large do the rays have to be (and can you use something edible)? How about using starburst chews and molding them into squiggles. Or using molding chocolate or gumpaste and using a wire as the support on the inside (I mean mold the molding chocolate or gumpaste around the wire) and to insert into the cake.

4) Go to your local crafts store, they have tons of different wires. Just find one that is flexible and strong.

Butterfly birthday cake decorating ideas - How to make a cake