After making my Halloween cupcakes, I decided to follow them with more using Bonfire Night as my inspiration. One of my favourite cake books, 'Eat Me: The Stupendous, Self-Raising World of Cupcakes & Bakes According to Cookie Girl', has beautiful recipes in, including Bonfire Cupcakes in the Autumn chapter which I had to try.
The cakes themselves are chocolate sponge, and once baked, taken out of their cases and turned upside down. Cream cheese butter icing with strong red colouring (I used a powder after my shops had run out of liquid/paste colouring, and this was much easier to get the shade of red/orange I wanted- luckily) is then spread over the whole cupcake to create the fire. To finish off the look- orange matchmakers are placed all around each cake to make logs and create a bonfire. These cakes were quite messy to ice, and amount of colour and icing used did make them very sweet- not always to everyone's taste, but great for a treat! Not long after I had devoured my bonfires (with a little assistance!) I decided to try The Primrose Bakery's Coffee and Walnut Cake after not having ventured beyond their cupcakes. I'm not actually a fan of walnuts, and so decided to alter the winning combination by adding chocolate chips instead- which was just as nice.
This sponge was marbled and made extra moist with a coffee sugar syrup and a soft coffee buttercream. Next time I might try honeycomb pieces to give a crunchy texture in the cake as an alternative to walnuts, as the chocolate was still quite soft alongside the sponge. This is a lovely cake to make if you have afternoon guests or want something a little more rustic than a pretty cupcake!
So after these offerings of my own, my next few posts will tell you all about various bakeries' offerings. Still to come: Euphorium Bakery, Love Bakery, Peyton and Byrne and Cakes by Laura-Jane, plus my Festive Tea Party and Post-Valentine's Boston Tea Party- lots of delights to look forward to!
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