Campfire Cupcakes

You will need:

*Cupcakes, of choice but I chose chocolate, recipe follows

*Butterfinger Frosting, recipe follows or frosting of choice

*Milk Duds for Rocks, optional

*Hard Candy Shards for Flames, recipe follows

Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 28 cupcakes

*3/4 cup Extra Light Olive Oil

*1 cup Greek Yogurt

*1/4 cup Butter, almost room temperature

*1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

*1/2 cup Brown Sugar

*2 Large Eggs, room temperature

*1 cup Buttermilk, room temperature or mix 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice to 1 cup Milk

*1 and 3/4 cups All-purpose Flour

*1 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder

*1 and 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda

*1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt

*1/2 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Ghirardelli, optional

Preheat oven 375*F. Line cupcake/muffin pans with cupcake liners.

Directions:

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium speed, cream together the oil, yogurt, butter, vanilla, sugar and brown sugar mix until incorporated well. Then add the eggs one at a time.

In a bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. On low-speed and alternate by adding the flour and buttermilk a third at a time. Mix only until incorporated. Scrap the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula making sure ingredients are blended together well.

Scoop cupcake batter into cupcake lined cupcake/muffin pans and fill 2/3 full.

Turn down the heat on the oven to 350*F. Bake for 25 to 28 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pans about 10 minutes, remove and cool completely before frosting.

Hard Candy Fire

*1/2 cup (about 80) Lemon Heads, crushed or Butterscotch Hard Disc Candies

*11 to 12 Cherry Jolly Ranchers, I choose cherry flavor just because they were the reddest in color, crushed

*Orange Hard Candy, if you can find them a few crushed pieces to the mix

Add jolly ranchers and lemon heads to a sturdy Zip loc bag; remove most of the air and seal. Then place bag on a towel and place then place a tea towel on top and use a small rolling pin or rubber or wood mallet. crush the candy.

Remove crushed candy from the bag and place on a parchment lined or silpat lined baking sheet (I used a quarter baking sheet but 1/2 baking sheet with silpat would work too, just place them in the center of the silpat in a flat layer or parchment paper and bake in a 350*F. preheated oven for 6 to 10 minutes. After 6 minutes remove baking sheet from the oven and use a toothpick and make a zigzag pattern through the mostly melted hard candy pieces making a marble look. Then place back into the oven checking every 2 minutes or until melted.

When melted remove from oven and allow to cool completely before breaking into shards for the fire on the cupcakes

Butterfinger Frosting

Recipes enough for 12 piped spiral cupcakes and 24 for simple frosted cupcakes

Peel the chocolate off each Butterfinger with a potato peeler and set aside.

Then Crush the orange part into almost a powder. (You can use the chocolate shavings for topping on the frosted cupcakes as ashes if desired.)

*6 full size Butterfingers crushed or 12 snack sized crushed

Cream together the following in mixer:

*1/2 cup Butter, at room temperature
*1/2 cup Peanut Butter

Add:

*1 cup Powdered Sugar
*2-4 tablespoons Milk
*1/4 teaspoon Orange Gel Food Coloring or until desired color

Mix together well, add the crushed Butterfingers last.

Using a Pastry Bag with a large decorative Star tip for piping, pipe frosting onto cupcakes in a circle starting on the outside of the cupcakes moving to the center of the cupcake. Refrigerate cupcakes for 20 minutes before adding candy shards and milk duds. Serve cupcakes within 1 hour of removing from fridge.

Frosting recipe adapted from Make Bake Celebrate

Also see: Our Chuck Wagon Treat Tables and Wagon Wheel Party

Enjoy!

Lindy