Bonfire Cupcakes Recipe

Bonfire Cupcakes Recipe

By Babysits
5 min read

As the nights are getting longer and the temperature’s dropping, it’s a good time to gather and snuggle in front of a blazing fire. Whether you’re celebrating Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night, or New Year’s, these tasty Bonfire Cupcakes are the perfect treat to have alongside your celebrations.

These delicious Bonfire Cupcakes are made with a chocolate sponge and buttercream flame - and sure to be a hit with the whole family! What makes it even better is that the cupcakes are an all-in-one recipe. So it’s easy for kids to make as it doesn’t matter what order you put the ingredients in. Great, right? Let’s get started!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

  • 4 small eggs
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 175g self-raising flour
  • 150g (softened) unsalted butter
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 25g cocoa powder
  • 1 orange (grated zest)

For the buttercream:

  • 110g (softened) unsalted butter
  • 300g icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
  • Red, orange, and/or yellow food colouring

For decoration:

  • Pretzel sticks or chocolate orange Matchmakers

bonfire cupcakes ingredients

Method

Step-by-step:

  1. Firstly preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Then find your cupcake baking pan and 22 cupcake-sized paper cases (or 12 muffin-sized paper cases if you have a muffin baking pan). Let your kid place the paper cases into the pan.

  2. Next your kid can weigh the ingredients for the cupcakes and put them all into a mixing bowl (though they may need some assistance with cracking the eggs!).

  3. Once all the cupcake ingredients are in the bowl, you can begin mixing. We advise using an electric whisk if you have one, as it is much quicker. If you don’t have one though, no worries! A wooden spoon also works - just ensure that your butter is definitely soft beforehand. Make sure the ingredients are mixed well together and that the mixture is smooth.

  4. Next, your kid can begin spooning the mixture into the paper cases. Fill each case about half way.

  5. Grab your oven gloves and place the cupcake pan into the preheated oven. Leave it to cook for approximately 15-20 minutes. While you’re waiting for the cupcakes to cook, you can begin making the buttercream. When the cupcakes are ready, take them from the oven and leave them to cool.

bonfire cupcakes method

  1. For the buttercream, put the softened butter into a mixing bowl and give it a whisk - make sure it is completely broken up and soft!

  2. Weigh the icing sugar into a separate bowl. When adding the icing sugar to the bowl with the butter, we advise you to sift the icing sugar in small increments and whisk each time to avoid making a mess.

  3. Once all of the icing sugar has been whisked with the butter, you can pour in the orange juice.

  4. Then grab two small bowls and divide the buttercream between them. Simply stir in the food colouring - we added red food colouring to one bowl, and then mixed red and yellow food colouring to make orange in the second bowl. Next grab your piping bag and a nozzle. Add the buttercream in teaspoons to the piping bag, alternating between the two colours. Then all you do is hold the piping bag over the centre of a cupcake and squeeze, creating the ‘flame’ shape.

Alternatively: if you don't have a piping bag you can just add the buttercream on top of the cupcakes and try to shape it with a spoon. Also feel free to dip a cocktail stick into the food colouring and then drag it through the icing to add a 'flame effect'.

  1. Finally, carefully break either your Matchmakers or pretzel sticks into shorter pieces and place them around the ‘flame’.

bonfire cupcakes buttercream method

And that’s it! Now it’s time for your kid to show-off their handiwork to the rest of the family and enjoy your tasty Bonfire Cupcakes together whatever the occasion.

With the pretzel sticks:

bonfire cupcakes

With the Matchmakers:

bonfire cupcakes

Did you enjoy making these delicious Bonfire Cupcakes? Then make sure to try our other recipes such as these healthy Halloween snacks or these scrumptious apple muffins! If you tried making any of our recipes we’d love to see them - tag us @babysits on Instagram or Facebook.


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