If you have a summer/fall party to go to, or just can’t resist baking something, this easy campfire cupcake recipe is really fun. It takes about an hour and gets 10 points for the cuteness factor. Plus, my sweet tooth just can’t say no to those chocolate creme filled wafers. Yum!
Here’s the backstory.
Now that we live “up north”, I decided to pick up this Country Living. We’re not even in the country, but just go with it.
And that’s where I found this impossibly cute campfire cake. Why hadn’t anyone thought of this before?! So easy, so darling. Just in time for bonfire season. Feeling inspired after building our backyard beach bonfire pit, I rounded up a few ingredients and got started. It’s the perfect summer/fall dessert.
Ingredients
- Cake mix of your choice
- Chocolate frosting
- Creme-filled rolled wafer cookies
- Hard candies (red, orange, yellow)
- Cupcake tins
- Parchment paper or aluminum foil
- Mini marshmallows (optional)
- Sparkler candles (optional)
Depending if you want to make a cake, full-sized cupcakes, mini cupcakes or all of the above, you’re going to have different pans and bake times.
This whole recipe takes ~1 hour.
Silver baking cups are definitely helpful.
Getting Started
First, make your cake/cupcakes and give them plenty of time to cool.
Then frost your cake with chocolate frosting. This is one time it’s supposed to look messy.
Once that’s done, start stacking wafers in a teepee, just like you’re building a campfire.
Marshmallows are optional, but I thought it would make a cute cupcake garish 🙂
Fire
This part is surprisingly simple. You can easily use this technique for other cake details. I can already see a bunch of uses for this!
Preheat the over to 375.
Scatter your candies on the baking sheet paper randomly.
For the candy, I used a combination of life savers and jolly ranchers.
Bake for about ten minutes until they’re melted.
While it’s still hot, swirl the liquid candy with a knife to mix the colors. Mine already looked awesome, so I didn’t do much extra swirling.
Once it’s cooled, crack the pieces apart with your hands or with a knife to make long flamelike pieces.
Start stacking the pieces in between the rolled wafers.
Keep layering them to create depth and shadows.
If a piece or two falls over, don’t worry.
Same with your cupcakes. Break the wafers in half and use two per cupcake.
You can use the smaller broken pieces for cupcakes and sprinkle them over top.
And there you have it!
Presentation
I thought the cupcakes would be easier to send home with people and serve.
And I was right – The hardest part about this cake was cutting it into pieces!
1). Because it was so cute and I didn’t want to ruin it. 2.) Because there was so much interference getting to the center of it.
I decided to leave about half of them unfrosted for people who didn’t want all the bells and whistles.
But actually all the frosted ones were eaten first.
This would go great with a s’mores ice cream!
Oh P.S. – is this not the cutest serving pitcher? Joe’s sister got it for us.
Bonus points for a real flame on top.
It’s definitely a fun fall treat for brunch or a bonfire party.
