October 30, 2021
Bonfire Cupcakes!
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Delicious chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that are perfect for bonfire night – buttercream flames, matchmaker kindling and more = bonfire cupcakes!
Bonfire night
I used to love bonfire night around my family friends house – they always did such tasty food, a bonfire, and even competition of who could make the best guy fawkes – but the food was the best bit. I just loved it!
Other than usually having a lot of fireworks go off near my house, I tend to just have a quieter evening these days – or a bit of a fun evening with some friends, so baking something like this is perfect if you are like me, or if you are actually going to a party!
It’s not technically been halloween yet but I am going on and on and baking more treats for you guys, and this time it is bonfire night themed! How can I honestly resist though, so far you guys are loving it! I wanted to do something really fun and party like for bonfire night, so went a little bit more dedicated on the theming of this bake. I just wanted to relive my bonfire night memories from being a kid, in cupcake form!
Cupcakes
These bonfire cupcakes are relatively simple, with a chocolate cupcake base (I actually flavoured mine orange but this is optional) – and then a buttercream frosting coloured accordingly for the idea of flames! I only did red, orange and yellow – but I loved how it turned out!
I used brown cases for the cupcakes so it was a bit more ‘ground’ or ‘dirt’ like, and used a simple chocolate cupcake mix for the base mixture. I used my favourite cocoa powder as always because I do just love the flavour it makes, along with light brown soft sugar in the sponge.
- Butter – you can use baking spread, or room temperature unsalted butter – both work well
- Sugar – I love using light brown soft sugar in my chocolate cupcakes, but caster sugar is always good
- Eggs – I use medium eggs, so I use four
- Flour – self raising flour as always, because you need the raising agent for a fluffy cupcake
- Cocoa powder – as mentioned above, the darker the cocoa powder the better
- Vanilla – I love a little dash of vanilla, or orange, or even almond…
Buttercream
For the buttercream on my bonfire cupcakes, I made a simple American style buttercream frosting that I then flavoured orange as well. I used this red food colouring, this orange food colouring and this yellow food colouring for the flames – I wanted to stick in an order of colours so there is slightly more red buttercream, slight less orange, and even less yellow as so little was needed!
- Butter – it’s so important to use unsalted block butter and not a baking spread or margarine as they are too soft, and the block butter will help keep a firm frosting for decoration
- Sugar – icing sugar, as always. I don’t sieve my icing sugar as I am lazy and I can’t be bothered, but you can if you want, especially if it’s lumpy.
I make a slightly larger amount of frosting, because you need enough of each colour. I colour 300g of basic frosting red, 200g orange, and the last 100g of it yellow.
I decided to sprinkle on a few gold sprinkles just to add a little something to each bonfire cupcake, but this is entirely optional as always. All of my decoration ideas are, of course.
Tips and tricks!
I used the classic 2d closed star piping tip for the recipe because I love the swirls – I used these piping bags, and then switched the piping tip each time. You can use one piping bag and swirl all the buttercream together if you preferred, but I liked it all separate.
For the kindling or logs for the bonfire, I chose to use matchmakers. I feel like they are the easiest ‘stick’ looking thing you can easily buy – but you can use something else if you prefer! I do trim the matchmakers down slightly though to make them fit better.
- I use this red food colouring
- I use this orange food colouring
- I use this yellow food colouring
- These cupcakes will last for 3-4+ days at room temperature
- These cupcakes can freeze for 3+ months
Bonfire Cupcakes!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 200 g light brown soft sugar
- 150 g self raising flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 4 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 200 g unsalted butter (not stork) (room temperature)
- 400 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp red food colouring
- 1 tsp orange food colouring
- 1/2 tsp yellow food colouring
Decoration
- 1 box Matchmakers
- sprinkles
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and prep 12 cases.
- Beat the unsalted butter/stork and light brown soft sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add in the self raising flour, cocoa powder, eggs and vanilla extract.
- Beat the mixture until its thick and lovely.
- Split the mixture evenly between the 12 cases and bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes.
- Once baked, leave to cool fully.
Buttercream
- Beat the room temperature unsalted butter on its own for a few minutes to loosen it and make it smoother.
- Add in the icing sugar and vanilla extract and beat again until smooth - I mix for a good few minutes.
- Split the buttercream into three bowls. I used 300g in one, and coloured this red. I put 200g into another and made this orange, and the last 100g I coloured yellow.
Decoration
- Pipe a ring of red food colouring onto each cupcake. Then, pipe a slightly smaller orange ring, and then finally a little yellow one on top. I used a 2d closed star piping tip.
- Carefully press the matchmakers into the sides of the 'flame' buttercream and sprinkle on some gold sprinkles if you want.
Notes
- For this recipe:
- I used these brown cases
- I used this red food colouring
- I used this orange food colouring
- I used this yellow food colouring
- I used this cocoa powder
- I used these gold sprinkles
- I used this piping tip
- I used these piping bags
- These cupcakes will last 3-4 days, at room temp.
- You can freeze these cupcakes for 3+ months.
ENJOY!
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J x
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Made these and they look and taste amazing !
Hi Jane, love these 🥰 can I use caster sugar instead of Light brown sugar, will the flavour be just as good?
I prefer brown sugar by far in chocolate cakes, but it will still taste nice with caster sugar!
I’ve seen in your videos that you often use an ice cream scoop to portion your cupcakes into cases. Could you tell me what size of scoop you use please? When I’ve looked to buy them they seem to come in different sizes! E.g. small (4cm), medium (5cm) and large (6.3cm). The cm measurement seems to be the diameter of the scoop from what I can tell.
Thanks!
Also, thanks for all the amazing recipes- I’ve been using them for years and I’ve never been disappointed by one!x
Hiya! I have linked the one I use on my butterscotch cupcakes recipe – hope this helps! x
Thank you for all of the recipes you give us they are all amazing, Going to make these cakes for bonfire night 👍
Thanks for the recipe, i like the cake. Next, i’ll try with the buttercream as well.
Why does my buttercream never pipe well? It’s always slightly sloppy. It’s room temp and I try and “handle it” as little as possible. Can I put it back in the fridge for 5 minutes after mixing the colour, before piping? To thicken it a bit?
What exact butter do you use?
Those are amazing. Where do you get the Matchmaker sticks?
Supermarkets!!
These look amazing 🤩 how did you make yours orange flavoured?
I used 1 tsp of orange extract in the sponges, and 1/2 tsp orange extract in the frosting! x
Is the orange extract instead of or as well as the vanilla?
These look wonderful
Thank you!!