Bonfire Cupcakes!

so, i thought i'd take advantage of the ready made theme we have here, and make some bonfire cupcakes! chocolate cake with a a dark chocolate ganache, icing flames and flake logs. seeing as its my first time making ganache and marshmallow fondant, i think it went pretty well!

i always use salted butter in my cakes, i think the salt makes it taste nicer for some reason.

it makes quite a strong batter, not dribbly at all, although that may be because of the mixer because i am not sure i'd be able to beat the mixture that much by hand.

my mum always taught me to fill the empy parts with water so they don't burn or something! - does anybody else do this?

the mixture makes around 17 cakes - but you can make more or less by varying the size of them.

Ingredients;
self raising flour
cocoa powder
salted butter
caster sugar
2 eggs

you may have noticed that i haven't included any wieghts in the list, this is because i use a recipe called 'the wieght of an egg' which is basically, however much the two eggs weigh, i use that weight in flour, butter and sugar. i got taught this recipe by my dear mother and it always works for me! when i make a chocolate cake, i replace a tablespoonful of flour with cocoa powder.

cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
mix in the eggs until combined but not whipped!
gradually add in the flour (this is more to do with stopping it all flying out when the mixer starts)
3/4 fill cupcake cases and place in the oven at 180 degree for 15 minutes.
you'll know they are done when they bounce back and a skewer comes out clean.

for the marshmallow fondant you can use normal marshmallows but i couldn't find any so i just used some flumps :)

it was so easy to use, and soft and easy to manipulate, and it tasted so much better than that silly shop bought rubbish!

Ingredients;
6 flumps/bag of marshmallows
enough icing sugar to firm it up
water
food colouring

cut up the marshmallows and coat them in water and place in a bain marie (a bowl on top of a pan of boiling water).
heat them enough to melt them into a thick marshmallow paste.
take of the bain marie and mix in enough icing sugar to form it into a ball.
turn it onto a counter covered in icing sugar and knead until soft.
cut 2/3 off and dye that part orangey yellow, and dye the remaining 1/3 red.
cut out 17 large flame shapes out of the orange paste 17 small flames out of the red.
stick them together using a small bit of glace icing (sugar and water).

finally, i made a dark chocolate ganache, which was thick and glossy and yummy!

ingredients;
250g dark chocolate
250ml double cream

heat the cream up until it boils, and then take it off the heat.
add the chocolate and stir until melted.
leave to cool and thicken.
when cool, whisk it for a while to make it even thicker and glossier.

to assemble them all, i coated a cupcake in ganache, and placed a flame on top. i then cut up a flake into small sticks and sprinkled them at the base to look like logs.

eat with a mug of tea and watching a roaring bonfire. Yums.