Aren’t these just the cutest!? Summertime is in full swing, and what better way to celebrate than with some fun cupcakes that highlight one of my favorite parts of summer: campfires! These come together so quickly, and will steal the show even faster than that. 🙂

Each summer we end up with a huge list of things we’d like to do with the family. Camping always ends up on the list, and my son has been begging us to go. We usually camp near Payson Lakes in Payson Utah, or somewhere else nearby. The trip usually involves going hiking, swimming in a lake near the campsite, roasting hot dogs, telling stories, and building a huge fire in the fire pit. I always ask Ryan if we should just buy a pile of wood from the store to bring with us, but he insists on using a little axe to cut up dry/dead wood from the mountains. It’s a guy thing, I guess. 😉

The firepit is usually surrounded by camping chairs, and a table full of graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. I’m not shy to admit, I’m no very patient when it comes to waiting to put my roasted (usually charcoal black) marshmallow on a s’more. I’ll have a few before sandwiching that toasted goodness in grahams and chocolate. My sons insist on having their marshmallows roasted to golden perfection… this gal likes them on fire and burnt to a crisp.

These cupcakes remind me of our camping adventures – of course we don’t have to come home smelling like campfire to enjoy them. These can be made year round with that special camping memory at heart. I started off with my basic chocolate cupcake, and then swirled on some of my cocoa buttercream. It doesn’t have to be a perfect piping display for this part – you’re going to dunk that cupcake frosting-first into the graham cracker pretzel crumble I made to go with it. I wanted it to echo that rustic firepit bottom under the fire. Little pieces of wood and little pieces of charcoal/dust/dirt are usually what I see in the bottom, so I aimed for that look – only these taste nice and salty sweet with those grahams and pretzels.

Next, I used my gel colors to dye white buttercream to red, orange, and yellow. You don’t need much of the coloring, a little goes a long way.

There’s a few different ways to get all the three colors into one piping bag for that “fire” swirl.

The first way is you can place your Wilton 1M tip into a large piping bag, and slowly, a cookie scoop at a time, alternate adding in the colors of the buttercream. This will make less of a “separated” color look, but will still work out and look pretty cool.

The second way, is you can use three different smaller (12″) piping bags and fill each one with a different color. Place each bag into a larger piping bag with the 1M tip, and squeeze them all together at the same time.

The last way, which is what I chose this time, was to spread out each color next to each other on a flat piece of plastic wrap. Roll the colors up in a “tube” shape, twisting the two ends closed (think like a tootsie roll wrapper) and then snip off one side of it. Place the snipped open side into the piping bag with the Wilton 1M tip, then pipe on the fire right on top of the “gravel” fire pit bottom.

Lastly, add on your pretzels, and “tiny” marshmallows made from fondant. You can totally use those mini hot chocolate marshmallows if you’d like – I just didn’t have any on hand and didn’t want to buy a whole container just for this project. Use what you have and make it work, I try to always say!

Hope you enjoy these cute little campfire cupcakes, and make lots of memories this summertime with your family around the real campfire.

**FOR THE ONLINE TUTORIAL, click here to watch my TV Cooking Segment with Studio 5.**

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Campfire Cupcakes

Campfire Cupcakes
Recipe Type: Cupcake
Author: Mandy
Bring summer to life with this easy to make campfire cupcake, complete with logs, flames, and tiny marshmallow roasters.
Ingredients
  • Small Pretzel Rods
  • Graham Crackers
  • Chocolate cupcakes
  • Cocoa Buttercream
  • Vanilla Buttercream
  • Red and Yellow Gel Colors
  • Small Pretzel Rods
  • Graham Crackers
  • Toothpicks
  • White Fondant
Instructions
  1. In a food processor, pulse a handful of pretzels and a couple graham crackers until small crumbles form. Place the crumble into a small bowl and set aside.
  2. Pipe cocoa buttercream (no piping tip needed) on chocolate cupcakes, then dunk the cupcake (frosting side down) into the graham cracker & pretzel crumble so it sticks on the frosting and makes a small mound.
  3. Split the vanilla buttercream into three bowls. Dye one bowl of buttercream red, one yellow, and one orange. Place the three colors of buttercream onto a sheet of plastic wrap, roll it up, and place into a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip. Pipe the “fire” onto the cupcakes, then place four pretzel rods around the fire.
  4. To make the little marshmallows, roll the white fondant into a small log, then, using a sharp knife or scissors, slice the log into small marshmallows. Place the “marshmallows” onto the toothpick and then place them on the “fire.”
  5. Idea source: multiple entries on Pinterest.