Campfire Cupcakes | Baking

Happy Monday! Autumn is upon us and I couldn't be happier to see everyone tweeting and instagrammng about their excitement and about the appearance of Autumn leaves ♥ I love the little touches of seasonal change starting to pop up all around me and I can't wait until Autumn is in full swing! I thought I'd kick start October on my blog with a recipe, for cakes that seem perfect for this time of year. I spotted a few variants of these 'campfire' cakes on Pinterest and wanted to give them a go myself. I was really impressed with how they turned out and wanted to share how I made them with you all so you can bake your own! Enjoy :) 

I've had these cupcakes saved on my Pinterest for a while, however a few weeks ago when I was out shopping, I noticed that the chocolates 'Matchmakers' (you know the choc orange or mint flavoured sticks?) were backc in stock in preparation for Christmas and remembered that they were used on these campfire cakes to create the 'firewood'. I bought some ingredients and a box of orange matchmaers right away, ready to try and recreate these adorable little cupcakes! I thought they looked fantastic with their bright orange buttercream icing; they are definitely eye-catching. I loved the look on my nieces and nephews faces when they saw my completed cakes! Keep scrolling to see them for yourself. I'd love to hear your thoughts :) So here's my recipe and method...

 What you'll need to make Campfire Cupcakes

[For the cakes]

100g margarine 

100g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

75g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

Brown paper cases/muffin cases 

[For the buttercream- enough for two batches worth]

200g sieved icing sugar

100g butter or margarine

Orange food colouring

Piping bag (mine was only £1 from Wilkos)

[Decoration]

Cocktail sticks

Mini marshmallows

Matchmaker Chocolates

[Equipment]

A big mixing bowl

Kitchen scales

Wooden spoon or electric whisk

Baking Tray

How to make Campfire Cupcakes 

1) Once you have all of your ingredients weighed out, add the 100g of margarine and the 100g of caster sugar into a big bowl and mix/whisk until the mixture is fluffy and light in colour. Set on your oven to 180C (Gas Mark 4) to pre-heat it.

2) Now it's time to add the other cake ingredients. The recipe for the original cupcakes (I use Be-ro recipes whenever I'm making basic cakes) included 100g self-raising flour, but to make chocolate versions you have to replace 25g of the flour with cocoa powder. Mix these two ingredients together to make 100g of powder.

3) Slowly mix this powder and the two medium eggs into the butter-sugar mixture, adding only a little bit at a time and folding the ingredients slowly to make sure that all of the air doesn't escape out of the mixture. 

4) Mix all of this ingredients together until you are left with a smooth paste. Spoon this into your paper cases and place onto a baking tray. 

5) Your cakes will need to go into the oven for approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Mine were ready after 16 minutes. After your cakes have been in the oven for 12 minutes, keep checking to make sure they are baked throughly. You can check this by poking one of the cakkes with a fork or knife, and if the fork/knife comes out clear without any bits of mixture stuck to it, the cakes are ready to come out :)

6) Leave your cakes to cool for 20 to 30 minutes before making your buttercream.

7) To make the 'fire' for your campfire cakes, mix 200g icing sugar with 100g margarine or butter (I just use the same margarine that I used for the cakes). This amount of ingredients actually makes two batches worth of buttercream. Cream the margarine and icing sugar into a paste. 

8) Now that the buttercream is done, you can start to add the orange food colouring. Part the mixture to make a little hole in the centre and drip a few drops of the food colouring there. Stir well until all of the food colouring is throughly mixed in. Repeat this process as many times as is required to produce the shade desired. I did this three times :)

I actually made three batches of buttercream in total because I made a mess trying to figure out how to pipe it, haha! I'm very clumsy and awkward with my hands when it comes to doing fiddly things. Let's just say that more icing ended up on me and the kitchen worktop than into the piping bag! XD

9) Swirl the buttercream on top of your cakes using the piping bag and then you can add the 'firewood' next. Snap up the matchmaers and arrange them on top of your buttercream to resemble a pile of kindling.

10) The final step is to make your mini smores to adorn and complete the 'campfire' look. Push the mini marshmallows onto the cocktail sticks, and pop them wherever you like on your cakes. Ta-da! You know have some very cool looking autumnal-themed cupcakes!  

Here are my finalised cakes guys!

I absolutely adore how my campfire cupcakes looked! Usually I struggle to make the things I bake look as good as they do in the photograph that inspired me, but I am really happy with how these turned out. The orange is a lovely bright, vibrant shade and the little smores are so sweet! I was also impressed with the piping bag I picked up at Wilkos; it's made the 'fire' on top of my cakes look great. I'm not sure if I've arranged the matchmakers very well, but I think my cupcakes are looking fabulous. What do you think guys? 

Have I inspired you to have a go for yourselves? Apart from the messiness of trying to get all of the buttercream into the piping bag (although this probably won't happen to anyone else!) making these cupcakes was actually pretty easy. They tasted so yummy too! I'm a little proud of myself, also considering I've never made chocolate cakes before! I hope you enjoyed reading all about my campfire cupcakes :) I'm going to end today's post by showing you some more photos of my cakes of course! 

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

What's your favourite Autumnal recipe?

 Have you ever been inspired to bake something after spotting it on Pinterest? 

I'd love to hear all about it! 

I just wanted to say a big thankyou to all of you who wished me Happy Birthday yesterday on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook. You made my day, and you're awesome! I had a wonderful birthday weekend!