Bonfire Night Cupcakes
At the weekend we attended a Bonfire Night Celebration and I made some delicious Bonfire Night Cupcakes to share with our friends and family whilst we were there. If you don’t know about Bonfire Night in the UK it’s when we remember the fact that Guy Fawkes didn’t blow up the Houses of Parliament with fireworks and bonfires. So after making them, I thought I would share with you the cakes and how to make them. So here they are our Bonfire Night Party Cupcakes for you to make.
Bonfire Night
Bonfire night has always been a bit of confusion to my American friends and family. However, for us growing up in the UK, it’s something that is a highlight of autumn.
We celebrate it on the 5th November each year with bonfires where as a child we would burn a “Guy” that we had made and set off fireworks and sparklers.
Now, it’s much more common to get together with friends and family for a Bonfire Night Party to enjoy together with some fireworks and great food.
It’s part of our English History in fact, it’s so important that there is a classic British nursery rhyme for it!
Bonfire Night Nursery RHyme
Below are the words to the full “Remember, remember the fifth of November” nursery rhyme that we learnt as a child in school when studying about Guy Fawkes and his plot to blow up the King and the Houses of Parliament.
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Guy Fawkes, guy, t'was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England's overthrow.
By god's mercy he was catch'd
With a darkened lantern and burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.
And what shall we do with him?
Burn him!
Cupcakes for 5th November
As a treat for our Bonfire Night Celebration, I made some fun bonfire cupcakes that we could share with everyone.
We used our favourite Chocolate Cupcake Recipe to make the base for these 12 cupcakes (we actually doubled the recipe to ensure that there were enough for everyone coming).
The kids also made some Edible Sparklers to go with our cupcakes. These were so easy following the recipe over on Red Ted Art.
Then had fun creating our own bonfire decoration on top of each one
What to use instead of Jolly Ranchers!
I used Jolly Ranchers for the flames however, that was just as I had some leftover from visiting the USA last Easter. You could use any hard-boiled sweets like Foxes or the supermarket own.
Special Ingredients for our Guy Fawkes Night Cupcakes
We have included affiliate links to some of the products and resources as an associate we may earn from qualifying purchases.
I did dig out some of my special ingredients in the cake decorating supplies for this. We’ve linked them below to the UK Amazon Store on the images and the US/UK in the text.
Bonfire Night Cupcakes
Equipment
- Piping Bag with Star Tip and Round Nozzle
- Hammer
- Ziplock Bag
- Stand Mixer
- Toothpick
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 12 Chocolate Cupcakes See Recipe Notes for link to recipe
Chocolate Buttercream
- 227 g unsalted butter softened
- 315 g icing sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 45 ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Decorations
- 1 bag Choco candy rocks
- 1 bag Tootsie roll candy
- 1 bag Jolly Rancher candy hardboiled sweets in red, orange and yellow work just as well.
Flame Buttercream
- 450 g unsalted butter softened
- 630 g icing sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 100 ml double cream
- food colouring gel red, orange and yellow
Instructions
- Prepare your cupcakes according to the recipe and bake.
- Set aside to cool completely.
Chocolate Buttercream Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer add the unsalted butter on medium speed and beat for 1 minute.
- Add in the icing sugar and cocoa powder 1 cup at a time and continue to mix to combine.
- Pour in the double cream and vanilla extract.
- Then mix on medium-high speed until you have a smooth buttercream icing.
- Scoop the buttercream into the piping bag. It should have light brown dirt like colour to it.
- Then frost the cupcakes with a thin layer of the light chocolate coloured buttercream icing.
- Start icing at the centre of the cupcake working out using the star nozzle leave the edge of the cupcake free from icing.
Decorating Instructions.
- Gently place the choco rocks and pebbles by hand individually onto the buttercream icing to make the base of your bonfire.
- Allow the tootsie rolls to soften slightly in your hands.
- Then roll each tootsie roll in the shape of wood on the bonfire you will need at least 2 per cupcake.
- Crisscross the logs to build the logs of your bonfire
Flame Buttercream Icing Instructions
- Using a stand mixer, combine all ingredients and mix on medium speed. See above for the order we recommend.
- Mix until you see stiffed peaks in your icing.
- Once the buttercream is made, split it into 3 separate bowls to colour.
- With the food colouring gel use a toothpick to add a little of the colours to each bowl. Add the red food colouring gel to the first bowl. Add the yellow food colouring to the second bowl. Add the orange food colouring to the third bowl.
- Stir to mix the colour throughout the entire bowl of buttercream.
- Scoop the red icing onto one side of the piping bag with the round tip, then the yellow onto another (second side) side of the piping bag and lastly the orange onto the third side.
- Squeeze the open end of the piping bag to push the buttercream icing to the tip.
- Pipe a large dollop of this frosting onto the centre of the bonfire wood to make a flame.
Jolly Rancher candy flame.
- Pour the red, yellow, and orange jolly ranchers into a ziploc bag.
- Using a hammer break the jolly rancher candies into smaller pieces.
- Heat the oven to 140C.
- Line a baking tray with silicone or greaseproof paper.
- Spread the crushed candy over the lined baking tray.
- Bake them for about 6 minutes. (PLEASE check to make sure they don't burn!)
- Take out of the oven once the candy has melted.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Using the hammer break the candy into large pieces for the flames.
- Place the flame candy pieces into the flame dollop on the bonfire.
- ENJOY!
Bonfire Night Activities for the Family
We decided to really celebrate and tried some of our favourite Bonfire Night Activities for the family.
- Fireworks in a Jar from Science Sparks
- Bubble Wand Sparklers from Red Ted Art for the little ones in the family to use
