In an electric stand mixer or a large bowl with an electric hand whisk, beat together the butter, icing sugar & vanilla extract. Start slow (or you will be engulfed in a mushroom cloud of icing sugar!) then work up to a high speed. Beat on high for a good few minutes until the mixture is really light and smooth. Add a splash of milk to loosen it a little and mix again until smooth.
Divide the frosting between two bowls. Using cocktail sticks, add orange food colouring to one and yellow to the other. Keep gradually adding colour until you get the shades that you want.
Line your cupcake tins with the foil cases and set to one side. Preheat your oven to 180°C/Fan 170°C.In an electric stand mixer or a large bowl with an electric hand whisk, beat together the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt until it becomes like fine breadcrumbs.
In a jug, beat together the milk & the eggs. Pour two thirds into the dry ingredients and mix until really smooth. Add the remaining third and mix again until all the ingredients are blended well and smooth.
Fill each case to about 2 thirds full then bake in the preheated oven for 15 – 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Load a piping bag with a large star nozzle. Then carefully spoon one colour of frosting down one side of the bag and the other colour down the other side. It doesn’t have to be exact, just roughly.
Have a little practice swirl on a plate to make sure that both colours are coming through, then pipe swirls on each cake by piping circles from the outside in. You may like to pipe another smaller swirl on top like I did. I think it looks good to have a tall fire under the “logs.”Snap some Matchmakers in half and others into smaller pieces. Cut the Flakes into small pieces. Start with a frame of 3 or 4 larger Matchmakers then dot smaller Matchmakers & pieces of flake around the bottom. Repeat until all the cakes are covered and look like super cute mini bonfires!
See! It’s not as difficult as you might think. In fact, If you have children, I bet they would LOVE to get involved in the decorating stage. You’ll just have to watch that those cheeky little monkeys don’t eat all the chocolates before they make it to the cakes!
Question & Answer
Question: What is the correct order of the images?