Darren Huckerby marked the end of his loan spell at Norwich with a match winning performance to which Cardiff had no answer.
The Canaries kicked off and enjoyed most of the early possession with Paul McVeigh having the first shot on target after eight minutes.
Neil Alexander made a comfortable save but three minutes later could only watch as Ian Henderson's snapshot flashed past his right-hand post.
After quarter of an hour, Phil Mulryne fired over before Gary Croft cut in from the Cardiff right but fired well wide.
Tony Vidmar then pushed Iwan Roberts in the Cardiff penalty area but referee Butler angered the home fans when he waved play on.
He became even less popular when he awarded the visitors a free kick against Robert Green for holding the ball longer than six seconds.
However, the home fans were lifted after 34 minutes when Huckerby intercepted an attempted clearance and raced through the Cardiff defence before beating the advancing keeper with a low right-foot shot from 17 yards.
Nine minutes into the second half, the Canaries doubled their lead when Huckerby's pass set up Roberts and his low right-footed shot from 16 yards beat the keeper's despairing dive to his right.
Peter Thorne kept up his prolific scoring record in the 59th minute when he headed over Green after Chris Barker had flicked on Danny Gabbidon's free kick.
The goal was followed by a double substitution - Andy Campbell and Croft making way for Alan Lee and Rhys Weston.
Weston was booked for fouling Huckerby and when the visitors failed to clear the resulting free kick, Craig Fleming's left-foot shot from 12 yards restored the home side's two-goal lead with 19 minutes left to play.
Huckerby created the fourth goal after 79 minutes when his angled cross went in off Vidmar.
But two minutes later Richard Langley brought out a diving save from Green.
Huckerby was denied a penalty when he appeared to be tripped, and then he set up McVeigh who fired over with only the keeper to beat.
The home fans chanted for Delia Smith to sign the impressive Huckerby, but the popular striker seems certain to have played his last game for the Canaries who will go into the Christmas season without their exciting loan star.