Spiced Chocolate Bonfire Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with ginger and cinnamon, decorated with an orange flavoured buttercream that's coloured and piped to look like fire. Perfect for bonfire night!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword Cupcake

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 25

Decorating time 30

Total Time 1 20

Servings

Calories 479kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

175 g Butter or baking spread softened, unsalted
175 g Dark brown soft sugar
3 Eggs large
2 tbsp Milk
150 g Self raising flour
25 g Cocoa powder
¼ tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Ground ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Mixed spice

For buttercream

200 g Butter softened, unsalted
400 g Icing sugar
1 tsp Orange extract
1-2 tbsp Milk
Red food colouring
Orange food colouring
Yellow food colouring

For decoration

18 Orange matchmakers broken in half

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 140C Fan/325F/Gas Mark 3, and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases
For the cupcake sponge, mix together the butter or baking spread and dark brown soft sugar, ideally using an electric mixer, for 5 minutes until smooth and fluffy
Add the eggs and milk, and mix until fully incorporated
Add the self raising flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice, and whisk or fold in gently
Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases, and bake them for 25-30 minutes or until a thin skewer inserted in the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. Put them on a rack to cool completely
To make the buttercream mix the butter on it's own until it's smooth and creamy, for 2-3 minutes. Use an electric whisk or stand mixer with the paddle attachment for best results
Add the icing sugar, orange extract and milk. Mix until smooth. If the buttercream is too stiff then you can add a little more milk
Divide the buttercream equally between three bowls, use scales for accuracy if you like. Colour one bowl of the buttercream red, the second yellow and the third orange. Do this by adding the food colouring to the buttercream and mixing it in with a silicone spatula or a spoon
Place a piece of clingfilm onto your work surface that's around 35cm x 25cm. Lay each colour of the buttercream out in rows in the centre of the clingfilm, making sure that the rows of buttercream touch each other. Roll the cling film around the buttercream and create a sausage shape, twisting the excess cling film at either end
Use scissors to cut open one end of the cling film sausage, exposing the buttercream, then feed that end of the sausage into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle
Pipe the buttercream on top of the cupcakes. Decorate with the broken up Orange Matchmakers
Store in an airtight container in a cool place and eat within 3 days

Video

Notes

Make sure all your ingredients (particularly the butter and eggs) are at room temperature before you start baking.
I used a baking spread for the cupcakes and unsalted butter for the buttercream.
If you can, do use dark brown sugar for the cupcakes as it makes them extra fudgey. Light brown sugar will also work well. But, you can use caster sugar if you can't get hold of either of them.
I decorated the cupcakes with orange matchmakers to match the orange buttercream, and to represent wood on the bonfire. Chocolate fingers could also work, although they are a bit chunkier. You could also use some chocolate strand sprinkles.
You can use any cocoa powder for the cupcakes, of course the better quality it is, the better flavour it will have. Also do make sure you are using cocoa powder and not a hot chocolate powder.
Mixed spice is a British spice blend containing cinnamon, coriander seed, nutmeg, clove, pimento, and ground ginger. If you can't get hold of it where you're based, you can use a Pumpkin Spice mix instead or add more of the other spices.
For the buttercream I used professional grade food colourings. These types of food colouring not only provide excellent colour results, but they are gel based so they do not make the buttercream sloppy. They are also easily available for purchase online. My favourite brands are Pro Gel and Sugarflair. Other good quality brands are Colour Mill and Americolor.
Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50).
For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.

Nutrition